Jura stared at the boy's back, wishing he could tear it to shreds!
But, before he could let out an angry roar, he heard Noah suddenly speak.
"Finn, he really said it."
'Cough.'
'What?'
Jura stared at the boy's figure in total astonishment. His mind went completely blank for a second.
'What the hell is that little brat talking about?'
He clearly hadn't said a single word.
'What on earth was this kid trying to do?'
Finn, after a brief moment of confusion, let out a questioning sound.
"Huh?"
Noah turned around and smiled. "He said his companions are hiding inside an underground labyrinth~."
Hearing this, Finn frowned slightly.
He could not confirm if this information was true.
At the same time, the answer sounded way too plain.
It did not give Finn the sudden "epiphany" feeling he usually got when a mystery was solved.
In short, it did not seem true.
Jura, finally coming back to his senses, started laughing.
'Hahaha! So he is just spouting total nonsense! That gave me a scare for a second.'
'What underground labyrinth? Evilus was not hiding in a labyrinth at all!'
As if he knew exactly what Jura was thinking, the corner of Noah's mouth tilted up slightly.
"Oh, my mistake. Not an ordinary underground labyrinth. The correct term he used was a man-made labyrinth."
Noah nonchalantly revealed the absolute greatest secret of Evilus.
Jura, who had just let his guard down, instantly snapped his head up.
His face twisted into a mask of pure, utter terror.
'Eh?! Did he just say man-made labyrinth?! Am I hearing things?!'
Finn's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Even without any more information, for a brilliant tactician like Finn, the term "man-made labyrinth" was the missing puzzle piece needed to unravel all the tangled threads at once.
The concept of a man-made labyrinth originated from the legendary master craftsman, Daedalus.
As the legendary architect who built the very first Babel Tower a thousand years ago, he was once a proud member of the god Ouranos's Familia.
But after the original Babel Tower was completed, Daedalus descended into total madness upon witnessing a "true miracle."
The true form of that miracle was the Dungeon itself.
Shocked by the Dungeon's impossible miraculous architecture, Daedalus went insane.
He became single-mindedly obsessed with building a "miracle" of his own that was in no way inferior to the Dungeon.
That twisted obsession was the beginning of the man-made labyrinth, Knossos.
There was another, practical purpose for its construction: to bridge the massive spatial gaps between the Upper and Lower Floors.
The Dungeon has a unique characteristic where the deeper you go, the wider the floors become.
Overall, it is shaped like a massive underground cone.
The man-made labyrinth, on the other hand, was designed to act like a specially shaped "lid."
According to Daedalus's original blueprints, once it was completed, Knossos would completely envelop and cover the entire Dungeon.
Unfortunately, his plan was far too fantastical.
The Dungeon was a living entity that could regenerate its walls, so it would quickly recover no matter how many times it was destroyed.
But a man-made labyrinth was just a building, it would inevitably be damaged by monsters and collapse over time.
To prevent it from breaking, the man-made labyrinth required countless tons of super-hard metals and rare stones.
One of those required metals was Orichalcum, because only a metal with the property of true indestructibility could exist forever.
Because the cost was impossible to pay, the project was supposedly halted and abandoned.
"A man-made labyrinth? How is that even possible?!" Finn was extremely shocked by the claim.
"That project only lasted for a very short time before the creator died! It has been completely abandoned for a thousand years!"
But despite his shock, his legendary intuition was screaming at him that this was the correct answer!
It made perfect sense.
Besides the surface of Orario and the depths of the Dungeon, the only other place Evilus could possibly hide an entire army without being noticed was inside that ancient, forgotten labyrinth.
The question was, did the man-made labyrinth actually have that much space?
And even if it did, how were they using it to enter the Dungeon undetected?
'Wait!'
"Could it be that... besides the Babel Tower, there is actually a second path into the Dungeon?!" Finn gasped.
'Tsk, as expected of Finn, his mind works so fast,' Noah thought admiringly.
Noah sighed and nodded. "It seems Daedalus's descendants have been secretly continuing his original plan. After a thousand years of digging, they have already built the man-made labyrinth all the way down to the 18th Floor. Oh, well... Jura was the one who told me all this, but it definitely sounds true."
'A thousand years? For a thousand years, the Daedalus bloodline had never given up on building that cursed labyrinth?!'
Amidst his shock, Finn still had some questions.
The Knossos project was halted back then because the required manpower and resources were simply impossible to sustain.
As far as the Guild knew, the man-made labyrinth was just an unfinished basement—the kind of failed construction project where the developer goes bankrupt after only laying the foundation.
Even if the Daedalus family had been building it generation after generation for a millennium, how could they possibly afford the exaggerated, astronomical cost of Orichalcum doors and adamantite walls?
Thinking of this, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Finn.
He whipped his head around and glared at Jura.
"I see... so that is how it is!" Finn declared. "The Daedalus bloodline is collaborating with Evilus to build the man-made labyrinth! The Daedalus descendant provides Evilus with a safe place to hide right under the Guild's nose, and in return, Evilus provides the Daedalus family with the enormous, illegal funds they need to continue construction!"
With that single realization, absolutely everything made sense!
Seeing that Finn had deduced almost their entire master plan from just a few of Noah's casual words, cold sweat poured down Jura's face.
'Impossible.'
'This is impossible!'
"Stop joking around, you two! You damn brat, who the hell are you?! How could you possibly know these things?! Answer me!" Jura roared.
He thrashed wildly against his heavy iron chains, the killing intent in his eyes practically overflowing.
Noah, however, just tilted his head and retorted casually, "What are you talking about? Weren't you the one who so kindly whispered all of this to me?"
Jura's breath hitched.
For a terrifying split second, he genuinely suspected that he might have accidentally confessed it all due to a lapse in his own sanity.
'Did I really tell him myself?'
Otherwise, how could this random kid possibly know their deepest, darkest secrets?
Or had he inadvertently fallen for some kind of high-level mind-reading magic?
As the cat-person's panicked thoughts swirled in total chaos, he noticed the boy's cold mocking smile.
'Ah.'
At that exact moment, Jura finally understood.
This was all part of the boy's vicious scheme from the very beginning.
From the moment Jura treated him like a stupid child, he had already fallen directly into his trap.
Noah knew the secret of the man-made labyrinth from the start!
He had deliberately walked up to the cage with the sole purpose of framing him and this wasn't an act meant to trick Finn—it was an act meant to let Evilus know that the one who betrayed their greatest secret was him, Jura!
All this time, even though he had been captured and imprisoned, Jura actually had a backup plan.
He had not truly lost his freedom.
He still had Evilus companions hiding in the shadows. Once they were fully prepared, his allies were going to launch a massive surprise attack on Babel to rescue him!
But now... when the Loki Familia launched a full-scale crusade against the man-made labyrinth, his companions would assume that he had sold them out!
There would truly be no safe place left for him in this world!
He would be hunted not only by the adventurers of Orario, but he would be tortured and murdered by his own Evilus allies....
And the one who had orchestrated his absolute, inescapable doom was the smiling devil standing right in front of him!
"Ha... hahahahaha! You demon!" Jura burst into crazed, despairing laughter.
A strange unnatural light suddenly flashed in Jura's eyes.
At the exact same time, the heavy stone floor of the Babel Tower prison began to vibrate eerily.
Finn was startled. "What is happening?!"
'Could it be that the Babel Tower was under attack? That should be impossible.'
'What was this tremor?'
All the guards tensed up, drawing their weapons and raising their vigilance to the absolute maximum.
Noah's expression also changed.
The violent vibration coming from under his feet gave him an inexplicably familiar feeling.
'An earthquake... is this exactly like the tremor I felt on the 18th Floor?'
He frowned and quickly moved closer to Finn.
In a totally unknown situation, it was much safer to stick near a Level 6.
But just as Noah took a step forward, he saw Finn's expression twist in sheer terror.
"Noah! Full retreat, NOW!" the Pallum hero screamed.
Upon hearing the warning, Noah didn't hesitate for a single microsecond.
He instantly activated his Construct C3's Anti-Gravity Engine and shot backward through the air.
The very next second, the solid stone floor completely shattered.
BOOM!
Billowing clouds of dust and crushed rock erupted into the hallway.
Noah squinted, trying to see through the thick, choking smoke.
Instead of an explosive spell, he saw something enormous slowly writhing within the crater.
A sinister, deafening hissing sound echoed from above his head, sending a sharp chill straight down his spine.
'Dammit, what the hell is that thing?!'
He immediately commanded the wind to swirl around him, blasting the thick smoke away to search for Finn.
Just then, he heard the sharp, heavy sound of thick iron chains snapping in half.
It was Jura! And he was free!
Noah instantly released his Raven Feather, and the dark gray gauntlets violently clamped over his hands and forearms.
He drew his [+3 Excellent Iron Sword] and fully activated Spell-Weaver's spatial perception domain.
In a fraction of a second, his skill sensed a powerful, crushing gust of wind crashing toward him from behind.
He hastily dove and rolled to the side.
HISS—!!
A ferocious, towering behemoth swept past the exact spot where he had just been standing, completely destroying the stone floor and leaving a terrifying, plowed trench in its wake.
In that split second, Noah barely managed to see a small part of the creature that had just tried to eat him.
Not only was it incredibly enormous, but it was long and serpentine.
Its dark blue skin was covered in thick, heavily armored scales that glinted with a cold, metallic light.
"A snake?"
Noah didn't see any arms or legs on the monster.
But it was the first time he had ever seen a snake this impossibly huge.
Even the massive water serpents he had seen in the Water City seemed small and cute in comparison.
"Appraise!"
[Lambton] > * ???
'Tsk, so my Level is too low to see anything except its name!'
'But that also means this monster's potential strength is at least Level 4 or higher!'
'This was incredibly bad.'
If it was a burrowing monster, its main method of tracking prey would be its sense of smell.
That meant hiding in this thick cloud of dust was completely useless against it.
While using wind magic to blow his own scent away was an option, snakes were extremely sensitive to changes in air currents.
He was already locked onto by the beast.