Mastermind
Copyright© 2026 by FantasyTranslater
Chapter 50
The labyrinth city, Lartania.
A city where the end of the labyrinth has yet to be discovered, where the deeper you go underground, the more treasures and artifacts appear.
Many mercenaries and explorers reside there.
At the pinnacle of this city are the five great guilds:
Bloody Iron, Terranomad, Arcadia, Ancient Tracker, Kalymadra.
These five guilds, as they are called, possess far superior power compared to any mercenary or explorer guild.
The difference in strength between them and any run-of-the-mill guild was staggering.
The guild leaders of these five great guilds were, in fact, no longer considered human.
They were strong enough to be called superhumans.
Among them was Aldric, the leader of Bloody Iron, who once slaughtered over a thousand monsters alone on the 10th floor, earning the nickname “Butcher.”
He was currently descending into the labyrinth.
However, today he was not heading down to reach the lowest floor but because of a large commission sent to Bloody Iron.
“Capture one monster on the 20th floor...”
Aldric, with a massive axe slung over his shoulder, wore a peculiar expression.
For good reason—something about the request was strange.
In the Lartania labyrinth, every five floors, there is a monster-free area, which doesn’t quite fit the term ‘labyrinth.’
As you descend further, these floors, called safety zones by mercenaries, start to contain unknown terrain or buildings.
But one thing remained constant—there were no monsters.
Yet, this high-paying request was asking for a monster to be captured from one of these safety floors, the 20th floor.
It was odd, to say the least.
Nevertheless, Aldric led his subordinates down to the 20th floor because the advance payment was substantial, and more importantly, the client had explicitly stated:
“Even if you fail the mission, you won’t have to return the advance payment.”
That was why Aldric was now descending to the 20th floor.
“It might be a trap.”
Though he entertained the thought, he wasn’t particularly afraid.
He had spent plenty of time on the 50th floor, considered the lowest level of the labyrinth, and was confident he could return even if something went wrong on the 20th floor.
Thus, Aldric and his subordinates descended the labyrinth.
“We’ve reached the 20th floor.”
Soon, just as the client had said, they arrived at the 20th floor.
The scene was filled with large ruins.
“What’s that?”
“A monster?”
“ ... Boss, there really is a monster here.”
To their surprise, they saw a monster as the client had described.
“But...”
“Isn’t that a goblin?”
“Seriously?”
And not just any monster—it was a goblin, considered one of the weakest monsters.
“There’s really a monster here on the 20th floor?”
“Wow, if we catch that thing, we’ll get even more money than the advance payment?”
“This is like finding a golden goblin.”
“It’s even wearing clothes—like something from the East?”
Aldric’s subordinates laughed and pointed at the goblin, as they had all slain thousands of goblins during their explorations of the lowest floors.
As everyone chuckled—
“Ha-”
The goblin, which had been staring blankly at the ruins, sighed and turned around.
“Insects ... you’re noisy.”
The goblin, with a clear voice that didn’t match its appearance and a lazy gaze, murmured.
Then, it moved its finger.
From left to right.
And then—
“A-?”
In an instant, the mercenaries who had been laughing at the goblin were sliced cleanly in half.
That was the end of it.
With a soft thud, the five mercenaries who had fought alongside Aldric for years were dead in an instant.
As Aldric, feeling an instinctive threat, raised his axe, he saw it.
The goblin’s eyes, far too intelligent to belong to a mere goblin, were looking straight at him, filled with only two emotions:
Arrogance and—
Thud.
—Contempt.
What Aldric saw last was that, and nothing more.
There was nothing after.
As the horrific screams of the remaining mercenaries echoed, his mind fell into darkness.
Not long after, he—no, the king of all ghouls—who had dealt with all the mercenaries that descended to the 20th floor, began to move toward the surface.
After discussions at the academy, the friendly matches usually commence.
The format is that the designated wizard for the friendly match comes out and chooses their opponent.
In other words, any wizard gathered to watch the match could be challenged.
However, the wizard with the right to designate an opponent rarely challenges someone too far below their own rank.
Challenging a wizard too low in rank could lead to gossip that they were bullying a weaker wizard.
On the other hand, challenging someone much stronger could result in embarrassment and offend the higher-ranking wizard.
Wizards, by nature, are prideful creatures.
Thus, it was common sense for a wizard with the right to designate an opponent to choose someone of similar rank, and even Alon was aware of this.
‘ ... Was Baruch around 4th rank?’
Feeling the curious gazes around him, Alon recalled how Liyan had glared at Baruch yesterday.
‘He’s one rank higher than me.’
In the world of wizards, ranks create significant disparities.