Flashy Adventurer System : Show Off to Get Stronger! - Chapter 734

Chapter 734: One of the Four
“Achoo!” Shye sneezed as he made his way through a moss-covered underground hallway. “It’s not even cold here… is someone thinking about me?”

The mission assigned to him this time was to investigate a recently discovered labyrinth in the middle of the borders of Valenzia and Phaskalda.

As per the WAA, strange roars originated from its depths, which somehow increased the strength of monsters in the [Brute] category such as Ogres, trolls, boars, and other such creatures.

Moreover, the weaker ones lose their sanity and flee from the designated adventurer zones, invading villages and towns.

Although these escaped creatures are ranked (C) and below, they still pose a significant threat to small towns and villages with little means of defense.

There are instances when the town guards and village sentries successfully eliminate the creatures.

However, they always pay a steep price in blood.

Unfortunately, exploring unknown ruins, labyrinths, and dungeons was incredibly perilous, as the creatures within could easily be far stronger than what the dispatched forces could handle.

Thus, Belford had no choice but to ignore the problem for some time, not wanting to risk losing even one of the four titled adventurers who had supported the skies of Valenzia long before Shye Crowley of the Black Dawn arrived.

Nevertheless, they couldn’t ignore the issue indefinitely, so the WAA Valenzia Headquarters unanimously resolved to finally send their hero to tackle tasks that only a hero could handle.

This was why Shye was on the eleventh floor of some unknown labyrinth.

In the first ten floors, he mostly battled (B-) and (B) ranked creatures, with an (A-) ranked Ogre General as the tenth-floor boss guarding the staircase.

Of course, it was easy peasy for Shye.

He believed that the four titled adventurers would also be able to handle the first ten floors easily.

On the eleventh floor, however, Shye didn’t have it as easy, as the monsters he faced exponentially grew in strength, with the weakest being of the (A-) rank.

To make things worse, the darned Dark Trolls roamed the hallways and guarded the rooms in groups of three.

Still, to Shye, who was more or less on par with an (S) ranked monstrous creature in terms of physical attributes, the trolls weren’t a problem.

He was able to slaughter each group with moderate effort, all due to their insane regeneration.

Shye then searched the rooms for treasures and rare herbs, managing to find a few, though the harvests were underwhelming when compared to how tightly guarded the rooms were.

Some rooms didn’t even have anything except for fresh meat.

“Tch, I’ve been here for a week, but I still haven’t hea–”

*ROAAAR!*

Shye was about to complain.

However, his words were cut off by an incredibly loud roar that echoed from beneath him, sounding uncomfortably close to his floor.

“Hoh…so that’s the strange roar, huh…” He muttered. “Sounds like a mix between a dragon’s roar and a bison’s bellow…”

Hearing this, Shye’s imagination began to stir, wondering what kind of monster could command powerful brutes like the trolls, ogres, and orcs he encountered.

“Maybe an Orc Warlord?” He mused. “No…I doubt the ogres would listen to an orc…”

Since he couldn’t guess what monster the roar came from, Shye decided to just find out for himself, proceeding deeper into the labyrinth.

Two weeks later, he finally cleared up to the fourteenth floor, discovering a [Rare]-tier skill book and a mid-adamantite-tier bow inside an old wooden chest.

However, he still didn’t find a staircase, only an enormous hole that seemed to lead to the fifteenth floor.

‘Tch, should I go into that cursed hole?’ he pondered. ‘But what if apex-ranked monsters are lurking on the other side? I’d just be a fish on the chopping block!’

Unfortunately, his mission was to locate the source of the strange roar that was empowering the monsters above the labyrinth and driving them to attack villages and towns.

He had no choice but to go in.

‘Ugh, fine then. Guess I’ll go in like the hero I am…’ Shye thought, grimacing. ‘Here goes nothing…’

Using the hole as though a kiddie slide, Shye activated [Mana Pulse] to try and sense thirty meters ahead, at least giving him a chance to react if there was a monster waiting at the end of it.

Although the eleventh to the fourteenth floor didn’t have a boss, the difficulty has been consistently increasing.

Clearing the fourteenth floor alone took him an entire week.

The weakest monster on this floor was (S-) ranked, while the two strongest were mid (S) ranked—powerful enough to control their own domains within death zones.

This made it clear to Shye that the source of the terrifying roar was no trivial threat, given that even such powerful monsters chose to follow and obey its commands.

After sliding down the hole for about five seconds, Shye’s mana pulse detected a single, massive monster.

Fortunately, it appeared to be at the opposite end of the area, far from where he would emerge, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, as he emerged from the hole and caught sight of the monster, his eyes widened.

Before him stood a four-meter-tall muscular bull with gray fur, wielding an enormous black halberd resting on its right shoulder.

Its eyes were jet-black, and fresh blood dripped from its mouth onto the ceramic tile floor as it devoured what appeared to be the remains of a dead (S-) ranked Earth Serpent.

‘F*ck my luck!’ Shye cursed inwardly, gnashing his teeth as he prepared himself for an extremely tough battle. ‘So this was where this bastard was hiding all this time?!’

In the past, when the Black Dragon of Destruction assaulted the formidable city of Yon Augenn, it brought with it four generals who wreaked havoc at the city gates, allowing the deity’s minions to flood into the city.

Hundreds of adamantite-ranked adventurers fell to their hands, and although they were forced to retreat after suffering severe injuries from full parties of titled adventurers and vanished from the world following the sealing of their leader, the reality remained that they were devastating monsters who instilled fear in the hearts of adventurers.

None dared confront such terrifying creatures, even with the support of their most trusted allies, let alone a solo hero like Shye.

The monster before him was one of those four generals: the lord of the brutes, the Minotaur.