[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 1
Thud!!
A chilling sound of flesh being pierced rang out as sothing dark and unknown lodged itself into my body.
It was a familiar defeat.
Not that I ever thought I’d win.
This was already the umpteenth ti I’d challenged this gatekeeper-like monster.
Dozens, no, hundreds of attempts had gone by.
No matter how much I pondered, I couldn’t co up with a way to deal with it in my current state.
How did I end up in this situation?
Even as death crept closer, blurring my vision, I felt no regret.
In this cursed place, even dying is impossible.
[You Died]
[Your soul and body have been restored.]
[Rember: In this place, you can never die.]
[In this place, you cannot go mad.]
The familiar text floating in the air greeted once again, pulling back to consciousness.
The last two lines were what turned this into a hellish, unending loop.
I had no idea how much ti had passed since I’d co here.
There were no tools of civilization like clocks in this world.
Was there sunrise?
Did night ever fall?
Not a chance.
The sky was perpetually red, with nothing but a crimson, eye-like moon hanging above.
It was a world that seed as though it had been destroyed.
[Ti does not flow in this place.]
That’s right.
With no day or night, even the biological rhythm of my body was absent.
This was a world where ti itself had stopped.
[To complete the Hall of Swords, your blade must reach the ultimate level.]
That cursed phrase was the reason why I endlessly fought the monsters summoned one after another.
The three core rules of this place kept from dying, from going mad.
They ensured I would neither starve to death nor fall asleep.
In other words, this wasn’t reality.
Then where was this?
[Welco, visitor. In the labyrinth of dreams, Labyrinthos, you can attain anything you desire through your own efforts.]
It was a prison.
A wretched dreamscape of a prison.
* * *
The Beginning
When I first found myself trapped here, I thought, as always, that it was just a dream.
In my previous life, I often dread vivid and realistic dreams.
Even after being reborn as the eldest son of Cascadia, a frontier noble family of the Lazarus Continent, that habit didn’t change.
After a hard day’s work, I would fall into sleep and have these peculiar dreams, waking up with my fatigue gone.
So, I enjoyed dreaming.
Dreaming ant waking up refreshed, free from exhaustion.
Anyway, this all started when I fell asleep at my desk after a long day investigating the family’s business ventures.
When I opened my eyes, I was already in this strange place.
Falling asleep tired, only to wake up in such a bizarre location?
Soon, I noticed strange illustrations floating before my eyes.
“What’s this now? Another unique dream?”
Curious, I scanned the images.
A sword, a fist, a skull—icons resembling ga symbols from my past life.
Their shapes were easy to recognize at a glance.
I pressed the sword icon out of curiosity, and a golden light enveloped it, making it glow.
As if possessed, I then began pressing all the icons, one by one.
I couldn’t stop until I saw them all light up.
Only after that did I feel satisfied, laughing to myself.
If I were to watch that scene now, detached and from afar, I’d probably scream and try to stop myself.
“Stop! Don’t do it! Don’t press that!”
But back then, I had no idea what I was doing.
Whether it was a glitch or intentional, I’ll never know.
Only after touching every icon did a set of text appear, opening the gates of hell for .
[Welco, visitor. This is the dream city, Labyrinthos.]
[Exclusive achievent courses have been prepared for you as the sole visitor.]
[Here, you can obtain everything you desire, along with trials, hardships, and accomplishnts.]
“Huh?”
Reading the floating text with a blank expression, an uneasy feeling crept in.
Of course, by then, it was far too late.
[We will now explain the rules of Labyrinthos.]
And with that, those cursed rules burned themselves into my mind.
[In this place, you cannot die.]
[In this place, you cannot go mad.]
[Ti does not flow here.]
[Fulfill the conditions set by the Hall and reach its end.]
[You have all the ti you need, but you cannot leave until you complete everything.]
What was this?
So kind of gym where you’re locked in until you bench 500 pounds three tis?
Reading the ominous warning-like text, I belatedly realized sothing had gone horribly wrong.
The real nightmare began shortly afterward.
The surrounding landscape shifted in an instant.
It transford into a desolate wasteland under a crimson sky with that eerie, eye-like moon looming above.
Before , a plain iron sword dropped to the ground with a clang.
[Pick up the sword.]
As if waiting for this mont, a cluster of light coalesced and ford a small creature.
It was a goblin—a common monster everyone knows about.
While an expert could handle it with ease, it was a dangerous foe for soone like , who had never trained in combat or shown any talent for it.
What followed was a bloody struggle.
The result?
It was my victory—barely.
But the goblin's desperate will to survive weighed heavily on , soone who had no real combat experience.
In its final counterattack, I ended up with a deep wound on my arm.
Of course, what mattered most was that I survived.
The vividness of this dream was almost too real.
The excruciating pain and overwhelming bloodlust were far too intense to dismiss as re fignts of a dream.
That’s when I should have realized sothing was terribly wrong.
But this cursed [Hall of Swords] refused to let go.
[You have successfully defeated a goblin.]
[Summoning three more goblins for the next stage.]
Yes, that was when I first learned how terrifying it could be when the number of enemies increased from one to three.
What noble son would have experience being outnumbered in a three-to-one brawl?
After all, wielding a sword wasn’t my task—it was sothing my younger sister did.
And so, I was torn apart by the goblins and died.
According to the rules, I was revived in perfect condition.
Cold sweat dripped down my face, and fear consud my entire being.
I scread for rcy, ran away, and tried every desperate act I could think of.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
But I ca to understand one truth above all else.
This wasn’t just a simple dream; it was truly a prison.
The goblins weren’t re illusions.
And the only thing that could save was this single sword—a weapon I barely understood beyond a simple grip.
[Pay attention to your opponent’s attacks, dodges, and defenses!]
[This will help you!]
At the ti, those cheerful floating texts offering tips didn’t even register.
I have no idea how much ti passed.
I kept dying and fighting until I finally managed to win.
Gradually, I started to grow accustod to the sword.
Even the dullest person, when faced with the overwhelming force of ti, is forced to adapt.
People say you can’t fix soone, but adaptation?
That’s different—and I’m living proof of that.
I’m a talentless human being. But excuses like that didn’t fly here.
“Damn it. Can’t you just die quietly? How long are you planning to hang on? Every ti I et you, it grinds my teeth.”
Crack!!!
Kreeeeeeee!!!
The massive hobgoblin I had just skewered in its vital spot thrashed violently before collapsing to the ground.
I don’t know how long it’s been in real ti, but in what felt like an eternity, I had already surpassed a normal human lifespan.
And over that long stretch of ti…
I reached the level my younger sister had achieved in her teenage years: Sword Expert.
[Displaying your current status to help your understanding.]
Beep!
Na: Leon Cascadia
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Ability: Sword Expert
It was simple and concise, but precisely because of its simplicity, it was easy to grasp.
It proved that I wasn’t imagining things—it was real.
“Ha… Sword Master? Mind Master? Grand Master? How many lifetis will it take to reach those levels?”
I an, what even is the peak?
* * *
Talking to myself beca second nature in no ti.
I started because I was gripped by the irrational fear that I might forget how to speak if I didn’t.
In reality, that wasn’t going to happen.
Strangely enough, my mory in this place was perfectly intact.
mories of my past life, mories before I was trapped in this wretched space.
That’s why my goal—to return ho—remained firmly rooted in .
So forgetting how to speak?
No chance.
Still, I kept talking to myself.
If nothing else, my vocal muscles might atrophy.
[Congratulations. You have slain the ravenous, shapeless entity.]
[Summoning your next opponent: The Mad Swordsman, Phantom Sword.]
Before long, a shadowy figure appeared before , drawing a thin, long blade.
The cursed text introduced it as Phantom Sword.
A bastard who wields a blade like a ghost.
By now, I had already faced it dozens of tis.
Killing the first monster leads to the second.
This pattern continues stage by stage, but when you die at Stage 10, you don’t just start over at Stage 10.
You have to begin again—from Stage 1.
That’s why this place is an infinite hell.
Anyway, this opponent—the Phantom Sword—was the first true wall I encountered after gaining the ability to sense aura.
Since that mont when I was forced to submit to reality, I had to turn the barely practiced sword techniques I knew into practical skills, refining and mastering them.
After countless deaths—tens, hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of tis—I finally started to get the hang of it.
In Lazarus, the continent where I hail from, swordsn are divided into stages of skill.
The first stage is for those who have just taken up the sword, progressing to Swordsman as they gain experience.
The next is the Aura User stage, where one learns to manipulate aura to enhance their physical capabilities.
Then cos the Expert stage, where one not only masters aura but can also imbue it into their sword to release powerful energy attacks.
Most people end their lives within these three stages.
Even reaching the Expert level requires talent.
Though there are nurous distinctions within each stage, the critical point is that a stage beyond these exists.
A transcendent existence—a true superhuman—a Sword Master who wields Sword Force and surpasses the limits of physical capability.
Beyond that are rumored ranks like Mind Master and Grand Master, but they are so rare they’re considered re legends.
Anything beyond that is completely unknown.
Not that soone like , who started without even knowing how to hold a sword, could distinguish such things.
Even Mind Masters are nearly mythical figures.
It took tens, maybe hundreds of tis the effort to reach stages that others achieve in a year.
Through sheer effort and endless suffering, I climbed higher.
The first rule of this place:
You cannot die.
Knowing that fact, I treated my body like an experint.
I tried every possible thod to sense aura, resorting to all kinds of ridiculous and dangerous tactics.
Failure ant death!
But in truth, there were no penalties.
Even if I died, the progress I made wouldn’t vanish.
After experiencing countless deaths, I gradually beca stronger, bit by bit, through persistent effort.
And so, an unimaginable amount of ti passed.
Or rather, it felt that way.
With no master to guide , I had to figure everything out on my own.
I had to ponder, analyze, and overco every challenge entirely by myself.
Sotis, I even used mories of novels or movies from my past life to gain an edge.
There’s much to say about those processes.
Humans experience countless trial-and-error monts.
What if the aura I’m building now turns out to be like a poorly constructed building?
Could I tear it down without hesitation?
In the real world, living beings have finite lifespans.
Sacrificing everything to start over would be unimaginable.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
User Comments
0 comments from readers