The Return of the Genius Mage
Plan B.
A last-resort measure to initiate if the operation goes wrong, or if Back Attack detoxifies himself after being hit by the poison arrow.
Activate the Magic Armor scroll to block physical attacks, then personally hold Back Attack down with my own body.
After that, get hit by the poison arrow together, become poisoned together, and survive using healing potions.
I've planned similar strategies countless times while playing the game.
If you don't have teeth, you chew with your gums.
Without a warrior like Virtanen to tank, a glass-cannon mage has to make it work somehow.
But…
'Fuck, I didn't know it would hurt this much.'
The pain of poisoning is beyond imagination.
It feels like pouring a pot of boiling mala soup straight into your nostrils.
The poison gas I inhaled feels like it's shredding my heart, lungs, and blood vessels to pieces.
"Kghk."
Back Attack is suffering just as much.
The veins bulging grotesquely across his trembling face right in front of me are proof of that.
"...!"
But am I even drinking the healing potion properly?
It feels like everything is refluxing right back up.
The potion liquid is red, and blood is red too—I can't even tell anymore whether what I'm spitting out is blood or potion.
'Doesn't matter. Drink it all.'
I desperately bit down on the bottle's mouth, trying not to spill a single drop of the sloshing liquid.
"Caleb!"
Yernil's urgent voice rushed toward me.
Gulp.
I finally felt a mouthful of hot liquid slide down my throat.
How much HP does a mage have?
That's assuming Health is at 0.
Mr. Back Attack's physical attack power—enough to shatter the egg shell armor in one hit—is probably around 65.
"Caleb!"
Originally, when Back Attack dragged me out here and stabbed my lower abdomen, I should've died instantly.
So how am I alive?
Gulp.
Because before coming in, I ate eggs and dried beef.
Their effects are Health +1 and Health +2 respectively. Not permanent, obviously—temporary buffs.
Did they really apply?
They did.
I tested it over the past two days by eating and then immediately going to sleep.
With Health at 3, my HP pool was probably around 75—just enough to survive a single normal hit from Mr. Back Attack.
And Back Attack still isn't dead either.
The bastard really has insane vitality.
Is it his Health stat? Or just his level?
"Kgh… kghk."
With weakening hands, he raised his dagger again and stabbed down toward my chest—
Clang!
Once again, it was blocked by Magic Armor.
With what little strength I had left, I yanked hard on his hair.
This is basically a zombie fight.
It reminds me of a dream I once had in high school where I fought a class bully—every punch felt like a pillow punch, no impact on either side.
"Kghk."
A mouthful of blood burst out of Back Attack's mouth, splattering over my face.
"Kgh."
I spat an entire fountain of blood back into his face.
And this is supposed to be the battle of the strongest on the first floor?
'How much damage does poison deal per second?'
It depends on the poison, but if it's Venomic Spider–grade venom, it's 20 per second.
How much does a healing potion restore?
According to game settings, the low-concentration healing potion I have restores 2 HP per milliliter.
So a slightly-less-than-Seoul-yogurt-sized 50 mL bottle restores 100 HP in one gulp when double-clicked.
That's the game's logic.
Gulp.
I'll drink as slowly as possible. My max HP is only 75.
But I can't die to poison, so I still need to sip it continuously.
I have five potions left after Back Attack stole one.
If I drink four of them, I can endure 400 poison damage.
The remaining one should be enough to heal the critical wound from my lower abdomen—though getting stabbed there wasn't part of the original plan. That part was a mistake.
Still, I'll survive.
Gulp.
I finished the potion in my mouth and pulled out another one.
Back Attack's eyes glazed over—unable to endure the poison and the critical wound in his side.
Even the strongest exit boss had reached the end of his life.
As his corpse slowly slumped to the side, I heard Yernil's shout again beyond it.
"Caleb, don't die!"
She was climbing up the ladder.
"The exit gate opened! We just have to leave now!"
Her face was a mess, soaked with tears.
"Let's cross the gate together! Please don't die!"
"W-we won…"
"Yes! We won! Don't talk!"
"No… it's just…"
I lifted the healing potion.
'Open it for me!'
"Ah!"
Yernil quickly twisted the cap open and pressed it to my mouth.
While gulping down the potion, I let my body go limp in her arms and got dragged along.
She propped my upper body against the wall at the edge of the platform.
So I could drink more easily.
Gulp.
It really was easier to swallow now.
Sitting there and looking down—it was a sight.
My clothes, that is.
The yellowish-brown slave uniform had turned completely red.
Please let that be spilled healing potion.
And if it's blood, please let it be Back Attack's.
Not mine.
Gulp.
Honestly, all of this is just uncertain, imagined math.
The calculations about tanking poison damage with potions.
In reality, everything could be wrong.
Maybe the potion doesn't really restore 2 HP per milliliter.
Maybe slowly drinking it won't actually let me endure 100 damage.
Maybe the poison arrow doesn't deal 20 damage per second, or doesn't last 20 seconds.
None of it has ever been verified.
It's entirely possible I'll still die of poisoning after drinking all these potions.
Gulp.
But what other choice do I have?
Gulp, gulp.
I can only keep swallowing.
In my blurred vision, the potion bottle I was holding was nearly empty.
There can't be any gaps between potions.
I pulled out the third potion bottle.
"I'll do it!"
Yernil quickly popped the cap and pressed it to my mouth.
"Hah..."
Poisoning hurts like hell. Seriously.
Suddenly, I feel sorry for all the characters I poisoned in the game while cooking up similar strategies.
I didn't know it hurt this much.
"I'm done with that one! Drink this too!"
Yernil opened the fourth healing potion and put it to my lips.
"Kgh..."
At this point, I'm drinking purely out of inertia.
I'm probably going to get the status effect [Drug Addiction].
Still better than dying.
How many seconds has it been since I got poisoned?
"Sniff… Caleb."
Yernil was sniffling, holding the final potion at the ready.
"You can't die… please…"
"I'm okay..."
I can answer!
Oh.
Earlier, I didn't even have the strength to speak—I was half seeing my dead grandfather and all.
"L-lived."
I'm sure now.
I made it through.
My mind suddenly cleared, and the pain started to subside.
Even though I'm still completely wrecked.
"This is the last one."
Yernil held out the potion.
I could see the red liquid clearly.
My vision, which had been blurred just moments ago, had recovered.
I drank half of the last potion and poured the other half onto the wound in my lower abdomen.
It stung sharply, like putting mouth ulcer medicine on inflamed gums.
"Haa."
Catching my breath, I stood up with Yernil's support.
"You did great. That last arrow hit perfectly too, Yernil."
At that, her emotions finally overflowed, and tears came pouring out.
She sniffled and cried as we headed down toward the exit gate, confessing how complicated she'd felt when firing that final arrow.
"T-to be honest, from down there, the platform was blocking my view, so I wasn't sure the arrow would hit."
That makes sense.
Mr. Back Attack probably had that in mind when he used Shadow Leap.
All ranged attacks suffer a low-ground penalty when fired upward.
And if the wooden platform blocks the line of fire, the shot angle is completely cut off.
Back Attack likely brought me onto the platform specifically for that reason.
But—
'You took the Level 5 special ability: Curved Shot.'
That's why I was sure you'd hit, Yernil.
"Nice shot."
"Let's go through now!"
We were right in front of the exit gate.
"Wait."
There was still something I needed to do.
"There are two slots left in the gate. Let's take them with us."
At the tavern 'Mice of the Beer Barrel,' Virtanen was clocking in as usual.
Today, Jikal was with him.
"One cup of catnip tea, please."
The feline beastman Jikal sipped his catnip tea, while Virtanen gulped down beer.
"Phoo—."
Clorence, the fifth-floor mage, smoked a cigarette.
"You don't drink, but you smoke? Isn't smoking worse for your health?"the bartender asked.
"Smoking is a stimulant and helps with spell execution. Alcohol is a depressant—it dulls my senses."
There was a reason Clorence was at the tavern despite not drinking.
Emma would soon bring a resurrection scroll.
Of course, the quality of scrolls produced by the Nataniel Temple was beyond doubt—but since his sibling's life was at stake, Clorence wanted to inspect it personally.
'The additional emergency scroll is issued today. We enter the labyrinth around five tomorrow morning. Find Abison, revive them, and bring them out.'
Abyssin had been taken by a Black Hornet.
As the strongest monster on the first-floor field, that paradoxically guaranteed the safety of Abison's corpse.
It meant no other monster besides the Black Hornet—or its larvae—would damage the body.
Judging by digestion speed, maybe both legs were gone.
But that was still within the revivable range.
The real problem was after that.
With such severe injuries, the pain would be immense right after revival, and movement would be difficult.
The priest would use pain suppression and regeneration spells, but it would take much longer before Abison could move properly.
'Virtanen carries Abison. The priest treats them. I lead with Jikal as my guide, kill everything in our way, and clear the exit room.'
That was Clorence's plan.
'As long as the exit boss isn't something like Back Attack.'
Of course, even if Back Attack showed up, the level difference meant he wouldn't be a real match for Clorence.
'Still… thief types are annoying.'
If Leaping Ambush breaks my concentration, things get troublesome.
And in the worst case—
If Back Attack attacks Abison and kills them again.
Then everything truly goes to hell.
Would the Nataniel Temple approve another emergency resurrection scroll?
They'd already used two.
'Should I have Abison wait outside the exit room instead?'
Clorence was desperately refining his rescue plan—
"Everyone!"
—when Priest Emma burst through the tavern door, smiling brightly and waving a scroll.
"I got it! The resurrection scroll!"
"Perfect!"
Clorence jumped to his feet.
"Let's take a look. I know you've already inspected it, Priest, but—"
"Before that, let's go to the labyrinth management office!"
Emma said something unexpected.
"They say the first-floor exit gate just opened!"
"What?!"
"The exit gate?!"
Virtanen and Jikal sprang up from their chairs at the same time.
Beer sloshed out of the overturned mugs, prompting complaints from the bartender—but—
"Don't tell me it's rookies!"
Jikal shouted.
"Are you sure the opened exit gate is on the first floor?"
Clorence double-checked.
"That's what they said! Let's hurry!"
"Let's go now!"
"Are our dwarves really getting nine thousand taken from them?"
"They can afford to be scammed. And it's eight thousand! Subtract the spider corpse value."
"Move!"
Clorence followed after them.
Labyrinth Association underground control room.
The first-floor exit gate had opened quite a while ago, but no one was coming out.
"I hope it's the slave team this time."
Scarlet, a magic academy teaching assistant who had been camped out in front of the gate out of boredom, rested her chin on her hand and stared at it blankly.
"Yaaawn."
She let out a long yawn.
So far, none of the slave teams deployed by the academy had successfully escaped.
There were rumors about some insane monster who could cast at ultra-high speed without incantations—
'As if that's possible.'
Scarlet wouldn't believe such nonsense until she saw it herself.
"They're coming out!"
Right on cue, a shout rang out—the source of that nonsense rumor.
Dwarf Virtanen's voice.
His party members came barreling into the underground room with thunderous noise, and behind them—
"Clorence?"
Clorence, a fifth-year graduating student from the magic academy, appeared as well.
A famous rising star who'd been making waves on the fifth floor lately.
One of the students professors were desperately trying to recruit into graduate school.
"Hello, Assistant."
"Oh. You came to see if Abison might come out?"
Scarlet asked.
"That's right. Though I'm not expecting much..."
"They're coming out!"
Jikal shouted, pointing at the gate.
Beyond the exit gate, something was finally emerging.
"They're finally coming out!"
Scarlet brightened. She'd already been waiting a full five minutes since the gate opened. What on earth were they doing in there?
"Let me see who it—"
Leaning in close to peer at the gate, Scarlet suddenly screamed and fell backward.
"Eek! What the hell?!"
A slightly decayed corpse had come tumbling out.
And that corpse was a face everyone here recognized.
"Abyssin!"
"It's Abison!"
Clorence's eyes widened to twice their normal size.
The entire Virtanen party shouted in joy and disbelief.
Though somewhat decomposed and missing one leg, it was unmistakably Abison.
"No way—don't tell me Caleb actually…?!"
Emma covered her mouth.
Kwoooom!
The gate erupted again.
And what came out this time—
"Is that you, Caleb?!"
Contrary to Virtanen's hope, it was once again a corpse.
The body of a fully equipped thief.
"What the hell is this?!"
"Wait."
This was a hundred times more shocking than Abison.
To first-floor adventurers, that face was practically legendary.
"Don't tell me…"
Everyone's complexion turned deathly pale.
"Mr. Back Attack…?"
The strongest adventurer on the first floor in recent times—someone who'd even pulled his weight in second-floor parties.
The man who single-handedly defeated a Black Hornet and protected his party.
The adventurer who vanished one day without a trace.
The strongest thief, whom first-floor parties feared encountering as an exit boss—
Had crossed the gate as a corpse.
With the Labyrinth Master's slave brand etched into his forehead.
"They… killed Mr. Back Attack?"
The teaching assistant's voice trembled.
"No, wait. Does that even make sense?"
Unlike monster corpses like the Venomic Spider, a possessed adventurer counts as "one human."
Sending one through accelerates the collapse of the exit gate.
The exit gate allows four people to pass through.
If two corpses were already shoved through, only two living people could cross.
And what does that mean?
"Not a four-man party. Not even three. A two-person party… killed Mr. Back Attack?"
The entire underground chamber of the Labyrinth Association fell into chaos.
And Clorence recalled the mage Virtanen had spoken of—
Almost like a legend.
"Incantationless… ultra-high-speed casting…"
Wasn't the party led by that mage a duo?
Kwooom!
The gate's color began to shift from yellow to crimson.
A third escapee was coming through.
The genius mage returns.