Chapter 342

‘We have to push through as fast as possible.’

Sungyoon looked at the horde of monsters with nervous eyes.

It didn’t matter if it was a small or large monster. It didn’t matter if it was powerful or weak. All the monsters charged towards them with their eyes flashing red.

There was no formation or plan. It was a blind charge towards their enemies.

The monsters were menacing just from their intensity.

However, the Connectors didn’t plan on fighting all the monsters by themselves.

Puh-uhng! Puh-uhng!

The combat vehicles lined up in the front started to shoot their Mana Knight shells.

The main reason why they insisted on traveling through land was the fact that they would be able to bring along a massive artillery force.

If they had tried to fly these artilleries through space, they would have to burn a lot of time and resources. The land route had been the only feasible option.

The Mana Knight shells were focused on two locations.

They focused on a region where the monsters were more dense than usual, and the direct path leading to the tower.

‘This is going better than I expected.’

A monster bared its teeth as it charged towards Sungyoon. He cut the monster in half.

They had killed a lot of monsters in a short time, but a massive number of monsters appeared once again from near the tower. It almost made one cuss out loud.

The problem remained that the Connectors weren’t defending a fixed location. They had to push through the sea of monsters.

It was going to be hard, but it made one wonder if it was possible to push through so many monsters.

However, Sungyoon had worried for nothing. The Connectors got in a wedge formation, and they easily pushed through the sea of monsters.

‘I guess I should have expected it. Even they couldn’t recover so easily from losing so many monsters.’

There were a lot of monsters, but there were fewer monsters compared to the battle to defend Armstrong city. Moreover, the quality of monsters was lower too.

Some powerful monsters appeared occasionally, but they were killed by the highest rank Connectors like Sungyoon, Tim, Russell, and Bruce.

‘The Corpse Gems have been a big help.’

Sungyoon’s movements were faster and stronger than normal. Each swing cut through monsters like paper.

‘The artillery fire support is quite helpful too.’

The advanced weaponry meant that the cannons could hit the monsters with great precision. If the Connectors showed signs of stalling in their advance, the artillery destroyed the monsters in their path in big chunks.

‘We can do this!’

He felt his confidence buoy.

It seemed Sungyoon wasn't the only one to feel this way. The Connectors became bolder and more sure in their movements. Their attacks became more powerful.

However, their progress slowed greatly when they reached the halfway point.

‘It can’t be helped.’

The monsters that had been spread around the tower started to focus on the Connectors.

The density of monsters became much higher. It couldn’t be compared to before. It wasn’t a matter of if the monsters were powerful or not.

The monsters were creating a wall of bodies. When one cut down numerous monsters, one could only take a step forward.

“Please stall them for some time!”

Grace hadn’t participated in the battle up until now. She had been running at the center of the formation. She yelled out loud.

At that moment, all the Connectors came to a stop all at once. They pushed back the nearby monsters as they formed a defensive formation.

In the middle of this formation, Grace raised her hand.

Woooooooong!

Light started to emanate from her hand. The light was so bright that the blinded monsters floundered.

The Connectors had their backs against the light, yet their eyes were close to being blinded. The light was that powerful.

‘She’s merely preparing to use her spell, yet it made our lives easier.’

Sungyoon couldn’t open his eyes, but he had that thought as he struck out blindly towards the monsters.

Several dozen seconds passed.

“Everyone that is between me and the tower should move aside right now!”

Grace yelled out once again. The Connectors, who had been blocking the monsters from the front, quickly moved to the side.

In a flash, a hole appeared in their defensive formation. There was only countless monsters between her and the distant tower.

Grace stretched her hand out.

Flash!

A light shot forward.

Puhhhhhhhhng!

In a flash, the air became heated as the light shot forward in a straight line. The superheated light burned everything in its path.

The light stayed in existence for a very short amount of time, but it was enough.

Wherever the beam of light passed, the ground became charged black as smoke rose. No living beings remained on top of this charred land.

“Ooh-wahhhhhh!”

The sounds of exclamation could be heard. It wasn't a sound of admiration. It was closer to a sound made when one was terrified. Sungyoon agreed with their sentiment.

‘It seems a Diamond Gem with all kinds of buffs can produce this much power.’

The light magic that Grace had used right now was her new spell. It was the spell from the Diamond rank Gem.

A Diamond rank Gem possessed the most power amongst all the Gems. Of course, its power would be incredible.

It was terrifying on its own, yet Grace had used numerous support spells.

As if that wasn’t enough, she also possessed the Corpse Gems and the Mage Gem. It resulted in her destroying all the monsters standing in the path of the beam of light.

Grace remained frozen. She had used the spell, but she was still dumbfounded by what she had done.

The peerless Russell and Bruce looked baffled by what they saw. Plu-El and Aruwen looked dumbfounded as they kept glancing towards her.

“H...hurry up! Move!”

Russell recovered faster than others. He yelled out loud. Finally, the Connectors came to their senses, and they started running once again.

They had to move quickly before the monsters closed the path that had been opened up.

Even though they were running again, the Connectors kept glancing towards Grace.

The spell had been so powerful that even the mighty Russell had stumbled over his words for a brief moment. Their reactions were understandable.

‘When she tested it out near Armstrong city, she made a hole through a nearby hill.’

At the time, he remembered Chelsea and the researchers looking shocked at what they saw.

Thanks to Grace’s spell, the Connectors were able to get near the tower in short order.

The monsters started to get in their way once again, but there weren’t enough monsters in their way. They were able to push past the monsters.

“We broke through!”

Bruce, who was leading from the front, yelled out loud. In no time, the Connectors were close to the tower.

“Aside from the people that will guard our back, we’ll quickly climb the tower!”

When Russell yelled out loud, a portion of the Connectors turned to fight the monsters that were rushing towards them.

The rest started climbing the rock structure, which somewhat looked like a tree.

‘I guess the Great Labyrinth is in here.’

This rock structure had risen from the ground, and it was assumed that it was the Great Labyrinth. Sungyoon glanced downwards.

‘…even a Connector won’t be fine if they fall from this distance.’

They had climbed so far up the rock structure that they could only see darkness when they looked down. Sungyoon put more strength into his hands, which was holding onto the stalk of rock, without realizing it.

“Doesn’t it feel like we are in some fairy tale? What was it called? Jack and the Beanstalk?”

Tim spoke.

“It does seem we are in a similar situation.”

Sungyoon had read that fairy tale before. He had read it to Shinhae several times.

“It isn’t completely like the story.”

Sungyoon took out his halberd.

“At the very least, Jack wasn’t interfered with as he climbed the beanstalk.”

Numerous monsters were climbing down the stalks making up the Great Labyrinth. The monsters were either arachnoides or centipedes. They were able to free climb down the rock structure.

“Tsk. There are monsters here.”

Russell clicked his tongue as he yelled out towards the Connectors, who were climbing below him.

“I want you to observe the movements of the monsters. If they get close, get on top of a stalk and fight them! If we are hanging from the stalk, we’ll be at a great disadvantage!”

Thankfully, the stalks making up the Great Labyrinth were very thick.

There were locations where it was almost a flat surface. They could fight in such locations.

“Magicians! We have to protect the magicians!”

As always, the safety of the magicians had to be prioritized.

Sungyoon looked at his surroundings. Emily and Grace weren’t too far away from him.

“Mr. Tim! You should take the lead! Ms. Emily and Ms. Grace should stick close to me as we move up!”

Since speed had been a priority, the Connectors had been spread out to quickly climb the tower. The Connectors started to group up once again.

Most of them got together to form parties.

Kwah-jeek!

Sungyoon pierced his halberd through the head of a monster with sharp mandibles. The monster’s red eyes dimmed.

“Ahhhhhhk!”

A scream could be heard. The sharp leg of a monster pierced through a nearby Connector’s leg.

Sungyoon didn’t hesitate as he threw his ax.

Kwah-doo-doohk!

The ax pierced through the hard exoskeleton.

The monster thrashed, then it started to tremble when the poison spread throughout its body.

Sungyoon tried his best to help the Connectors around him, but he was limited in how much area that he could cover.

Casualties started to mount in ones and twos. Despite this fact, the Connectors resolutely climbed the structure.

‘The air….’

The loud sounds of battle from the surface started to fade away. They were starting to move past the layer of air that had settled near the ground.

After they desperately climbed the Great Labyrinth for a time...

‘We’ve arrived!’

Sungyoon’s party arrived in front of the tower.

Sungyoon looked up at the tower. He couldn’t see a single window. It looked like an obelisk where the structure became sharper towards the top.

‘We won’t be able to enter from the top.’

They would have to use the conventional method of going through the entrance.

‘What if there is no entrance?’

Sungyoon thought about the worst-case scenario as he did a thorough search of the tower. Thankfully, Sungyoon’s ominous feelings weren’t realized.

One of the Connectors started waving his hands in the air in an exaggerated manner to get everyone’s attention. He pointed towards a region of the tower.

‘Entrance!’

The Connectors started to gather around the entrance. Russell and the Connectors started to communicate through hand signals.

‘As expected, the inability to speak is very inconvenient.’

Sungyoon focused on the movements of Russel’s hands.

‘Part of us will stay here to block the monsters. The rest will enter the tower.’

The plan was already made beforehand. Russell was just going over it as a reminder.

Of course, Sungyoon and his party members were part of the group that would enter the tower.

When Russell gave the signal, the Connectors started entering the tower. Sungyoon also entered the tower.

As soon as they entered the tower, they felt the flow of air.

It meant they could speak. Sungyoon felt joy at this fact.

“It doesn’t seem they place monsters near the entrance.”

Russell, who observed their surroundings from the front, relaxed a little bit. However, no one let their guards down at his words.

In fact, their expressions worsened.

“I would have preferred if there were monsters here.”

“I feel the same way.”

Sungyoon let out a sigh, and Bruce clicked his tongue. The other Connectors were disquieted by this fact too.

“Why the hell did they have to make a labyrinth within the tower too?”

In the end, Bruce started to curse.

Several staircases existed in front of them.

It was like an abstract painting where the staircase twisted in odd ways as they climbed the tower. They couldn’t see the end to the staircases.

“Which one heads to the top? Or, do we have to go to the top?”

“I have no idea.”

“I’m not naive enough to think those staircases lead straight up to the top.”

“It might.”

Bruce and Russell were at a loss as they conversed with each other. Sungyoon interjected himself into the conversation.

“We have no choice. We have to brute force it by investigating each staircase. However, we don’t have enough time to do this slowly.”

Sungyoon glanced back at the entrance.

He had no idea how long the Connectors could stall the monsters.

“I see. That’s our only choice. Alright! We’ll search all the staircases as fast as possible! We’ll gather back here no matter what within three hours! If you find something suspicious, come back here as soon as possible! Don’t be reckless by touching anything suspicious! Understood?”

“Ooh-oh!”

“Alright! Let’s go!”

The Connectors started climbing the staircases all at once.