Kaxu hid her still-flushed face behind her wide sleeves, following Gray through the magnificent Valhalla Gate.
With a single step forward, the noise of the Association hall, which had been as loud as a bustling market, was instantly severed by an invisible barrier.
In its place was a long, quiet corridor that felt like a seamless blend of science fiction and magic, stretching infinitely into the distance.
On both sides of the corridor stood hundreds or thousands of massive teleportation gates.
Each gate was composed of precision brass gears, flowing mithril runes, and hovering mana crystals.
They continuously rotated and clicked together in the void, emitting a pleasant and rhythmic mechanical hum, as if countless hearts were beating in unison.
At that moment, the young girl silently pulled out her small, spherical live-streaming device from her skirt and skillfully turned it on.
“Are you streaming again?”
Gray asked, somewhat surprised.
“Of course,” Kaxu said, shooting him a look.
Her tone carried a hint of playful pique and stubbornness that she hadn’t even noticed herself.
“I have to let everyone see that we aren’t just going there for fun.”
As the live-stream signal connected, the automatic promotion algorithm immediately pushed the Black Crow Squad’s raid broadcast to the front page of the adventurer terminals in Knox City and throughout the entire Noble Union.
[Black Crow Squad. Goal: Third Labyrinth — Wailing Corridor!]
In an instant, a massive number of viewers flooded into the stream.
[Am I seeing this right? An A-rank taking an E-level to the Third Labyrinth?]
[Is that A-rank captain crazy? No matter how confident you are in yourself, bringing a piece of dead weight to a labyrinth of that level is suicide!]
[It’s over, it’s over. That beautiful young priestess is going to be broken into a vegetable. Sigh, my fetish isn’t watching someone’s mind snap…]
[I bet five silver coins that their total combat time inside won’t even last fifteen minutes.]
Doubts and mocking comments flooded the screen like a tide.
However, the two people at the center of the storm were completely unaware of it all.
“The Third Labyrinth, Greed’s Wailing, is guarded by the Calamity Pillar, the Greed Demon. It ranked among the ten most dangerous labyrinths last year and is a Night Glow Level threat. Even I haven’t successfully cleared this labyrinth before, so…”
Gray deliberately dragged out his words, hoping to make Kaxu, who seemed a bit too excited, take things seriously.
“What we are about to face might be a horror like you’ve never seen before. It’s the kind of place that could exhaust all the teleportation crystals we prepared within half a day. Are you mentally prepared, Miss Kaxu?”
The young man turned his head, expecting to see a small priestess whose smile had vanished, trembling in fear at his warning.
Instead, the girl’s deep blue eyes showed not a sliver of fear.
On the contrary, they were burning with a fierce… lust?
No, it was probably battle intent.
She stared straight at the teleportation gate with eyes so fervent they resembled Heroes in a red-light district looking at succubi, her face written with impatience.
“Okay, Mister Gray, I understand! Very scary, very dangerous!”
Kaxu nodded vigorously, the heavy Holy Gold Spear-Sword in her hand creaking under her grip.
“So, when do we leave? I can’t wait to go in and vent—no, I mean, explore!”
Gray rubbed the bridge of his nose helplessly.
‘I guess this is what they call “the newborn Hero doesn’t fear the Calamity Pillar.”‘
Fine.
Once they entered the Wailing Corridor and she saw the despair-inducing labyrinth mechanics and difficulty for herself, she would probably settle down.
In Gray’s mind, compared to the perils of the Third Labyrinth, the labyrinths Kaxu had experienced so far were likely no different from playing house — even if one included the “Ghost Ship Graveyard.”
‘I’m sorry, Miss Kaxu, but a Hero who hasn’t experienced setbacks cannot truly grow. Even the Dawn Blade is a legend forged through repeated failures, let alone the Black Crow Squad where I’m the only real combatant.’
Gray apologized to his priestess in his heart.
Of course, Kaxu seemed completely oblivious to the difficult trial she was about to face.
Her only sensation at the moment was heat.
Pure heat.
The mana the Demon King had given her was still rampaging through her body.
She felt like her entire being was about to catch fire!
‘I must find a place to have a good fight and vent this excess energy. Otherwise, I might really lose control and pounce on Gray! That would be social suicide!’
The girl irritably swung the heavy spear-sword in her hand.
The cold touch of the metal slightly relieved the heat in her palms, causing her to let out a comfortable sigh.
And this scene was caught perfectly by the live-stream camera.
[By the way, what kind of staff is that blonde girl holding? Why does it look like a warrior’s weapon? I see her role is listed as a Priest.]
[A melee Priest? Are you telling me that katana guy is a ranged attacker?]
[Don’t talk trash in the comments. I’m a Knox local. When this little priestess did her Hero test, her monstrous strength was almost on par with a B-rank Warrior.]
[B-rank Warrior? Hey, local guy, is your hobby dreaming?]
The comments quickly devolved into mutual attacks.
Meanwhile, the teleportation gate’s destination had finally been locked.
A massive vortex formed within the gate, emitting a soul-chilling dark purple glow.
“Listen up, Miss Kaxu,” Gray said, giving a final pre-battle briefing.
“According to the limited intel available, the Wailing Corridor has one most disgusting and dangerous feature — its spatial structure is constantly changing.”
“What you see as a road one second might become a cliff the next. All maps are useless here.”
“Mhm! I understand!”
On the surface, Kaxu put on the face of a serious, studious student, but her heart remained completely unruffled.
‘Nonsense. Of course I know that. I don’t need a minor subordinate of my defeated foe to tell me.’
Labyrinths guarded by Calamity Pillars were generally divided into two types.
Traditionalists like Noctiluca built dungeons that extended downward floor by floor.
Then there were those like Mammon, who used a special method to inject their mana into the labyrinth core, turning the dungeon into a “Schrödinger’s Labyrinth” that changed every time a Hero entered.
“It means all the guides, maps, and experience summarized by everyone before… are all useless here, right?”
The girl looked up, flashing a brilliant smile.
Gray was surprised that she could point out a difficulty — one that was no different from a total catastrophe for most Heroes who liked to copy the work of those before them — with a smile on her face.
He nodded.
“Then it’s simple!”
Kaxu swung her spear-sword, creating a whistling sound in the air.
“In other words, we don’t need to worry about drawing maps or planning an escape route. We just use all our strength to charge straight through!”
Gray opened his mouth, finding himself unable to refute her reckless logic.
Just then, a young clerk from the Association walked over, carrying a disclaimer for routine business.
“Black Crow Squad, right? According to the regulations, if you don’t emerge from the labyrinth within twenty-four hours after losing signal, the Association will initiate search and rescue procedures… But to be honest, in a place like the Third Labyrinth, search and rescue is basically just body recovery.”
He glanced at the ID card in Kaxu’s hand that marked her as the captain, then looked at Gray behind her, his expression turning strange.
“Wait, you’re the captain?”
The comments in the live-stream also exploded.
Uninformed viewers were already theorizing about the relationship between a rookie Church lady and a top-tier Demon King Guardian.
Kaxu didn’t care about the clerk’s astonished gaze at all.
She simply asked with a smile, “Hey, if our Black Crow Squad successfully clears the Third Labyrinth today, will we become legends?”
The clerk was amused and joked, “If an E-level Priest leading a team can get the first clear of the Third Labyrinth, forget being legends; tomorrow, you’ll be the miracle of the entire Noble Union! I’ll eat this counter right here on the spot!”
“Good, it’s a deal!”
The girl puffed out her chest with confidence, though the effect wasn’t particularly dramatic.
“Then today is the first step for the Black Crow Squad to make a name for itself! Mister Gray, let’s go!”
After saying that, like a child rushing into an amusement park, she stepped into the teleportation gate that emanated a terrifying aura.
Gray looked at her back, shook his head helplessly, and followed her inside with his katana on his back.
Their figures disappeared one after another into the purple vortex.
At this moment, neither the Heroes watching nor the thousands of viewers waiting to see a joke in the live-stream — not even Gray himself — could have imagined it.
In just a few hours, the notorious guardian of the Third Labyrinth, who had caused countless A-rank teams to fail, was about to experience its darkest hour at the hands of this two-person squad led by an obscure E-level Priest.