Chapter 343: Chapter 343

As Bruce had said, the staircases didn't lead down one path. After climbing a dozen meters upward, the staircase split into two paths. The first path further split into three paths, and the second split into two.

The Connectors also split up into parties as they headed down the various paths. There was a chance that their enemies were using a divide and conquer strategy and that the parties were walking into a trap. However, the Connectors didn't have the time to worry about such a thing. The only thing they could do was be a bit more vigilant of their surroundings.

Thankfully, they didn't encounter any traps. However, Sungyoon realized in time that he would have preferred traps to what he was facing right now. He ground his teeth.

"Uh?"

Tim, who had been walking in the front, let out a flustered sigh.

Sungyoon's face crumpled.

'Again?'

It was as he had expected. They had run across another party that had taken one of the other paths.

The warriors in that party were wearing helmets, so Sungyoon couldn't see their expressions. However, he could see the expression on the faces of the mages since they had only worn clothes over their heads.

They all looked surprised.

"K... Knight's party? Why are you coming down from above?"

The warrior in the front asked the question.

"We've been climbing up our staircase."

Sungyoon replied.

"What? That can't be! We are climbing our staircase too!"

"Honestly, you guys aren't the first ones we encountered on our path."

Sungyoon brought his hand to the back of his head to scratch it on habit. However, when his gauntlet clashed against his helmet, he had to lower his hand.

"We encountered another party before we arrived here, and we had the exact same conversation with them. From our perspective, we were climbing up the staircase and they were descending the stairs."

"Like right now?"

"Yes. Like right now."

The warrior tilted his head. He had an idea about what was going on.

"Shit! The tower's labyrinth is playing with us!"

The warrior clicked his tongue. However, Sungyoon shook his head from side to side and proceeded to tell the warrior a more horrible truth.

"If the tower is just a labyrinth, there's no way we'll get confused as to whether we are climbing or descending. I believe space is distorted within this place."

"Are you talking about the phenomena that sometimes show up in the Great Labyrinth?"

"Yes. I think it's something similar."

The warrior let out a sigh. He probably went on a cursing spree within his heart. Sungyoon had done the same thing when he had found out the truth.

"It can't be helped. Did you mark the path that you traveled through?"

"I did."

Sungyoon took out a peculiar pen.

"We also marked our path. In the next crossroad, let us take the path that we didn't take before."

"Understood."

The two parties walked past each other.

"This is causing a headache for an entirely different reason than we had expected."

Tim checked the time as he spoke. In the beginning, they had moved in silence, but they had encountered unexpected difficulties.

"It can't be helped. We can only do our job right now."

Sungyoon kept calm as he spoke to Tim. However, his face had turned stiff to a frightening degree within his helmet.

***

Three hours passed, and everyone returned to the original spot with frowning faces.

"Did you guys come back after getting lost in the twisted staircase?"

"Yes."

Sungyoon's answer disappointed Russell.

"What about you, Sir Russell?"

"The same. It wasn't just our party. It was the same for everyone."

All of the Connectors, who had branched out in small groups to explore the tower, came back grumbling.

"We had hoped that you experienced something different from us."

"I'm sorry for letting your expectations down."

"You don't have to apologize. Everyone here failed too, including me."

Russell patted Sungyoon's shoulder once. Then, he walked toward the rest of the Connectors.

"Thankfully, everyone made it back!"

It was the only good news. When Russell shouted, the Connectors focused their attention on him.

"Did you draw a map?"

"We made a rough one."

Someone handed a piece of paper to Russell. It was a map of the tower created by piecing together everyone's information.

The map was very rough, but it was better than nothing.

"Alright! Everyone, copy it!"

Each party sent out a representative to copy the map. Grace stepped forward for Sungyoon's party.

If no one in a party was good at drawing, members from other parties drew the map for them.

"Are you all done?"

"Yes."

Each representative waved the piece of paper.

Russell clapped to get everyone's attention once again.

"This damn tower is playing with us, but we can't retreat! We have to find the 'something' that can save Earth! I have no idea what that 'something' is, but we have to find it at all costs!"

He was making an unreasonable demand, but no one refuted his words. Earth was facing an existential threat, so they had to put their hopes into something unreasonable.

"I want you to comb the tower! Don't miss any spot that gives off a weird vibe! Since we are in a distorted space, the tower is much bigger than our expectations. We can't go by how large it's from the outside. Still, we have to do this! Be prepared to draw every inch of this tower on the map!"

All the Connectors nodded.

***

'It seems someone already walked past this place.'

Sungyoon thought as he looked at the clear mark pointing toward one of the forked paths.

Grace drew in another pathway on her map.

'This is getting way too complex.'

Sungyoon shook his head from side to side when he looked at the map in Grace's hand. Grace was drawing the inner structure of a tower, so it looked very different from a normal map. However, Sungyoon understood what he was seeing. Grace was a talented drawer, so the map was very detailed.

'The parties with no one good at drawing will have a terrible time.'

Grace put her map away, and the party started to move once again. They decided to go down one of the paths not on their map. When they turned a sharp corner, something appeared in front of them. Sungyoon and Tim reflexively swung their weapons.

'Sir Russell!'

The two men desperately aborted their swings. Russell, who had also swung his sword toward Sungyoon and Tim, quickly retracted his weapon.

"It's you guys."

Russell said while lowering his sword.

"You surprised me."

Tim placed a hand over his heart, and Russell let out a chuckle.

"We feel the same way, Ross."

Russell then looked at Grace. When he checked she was ok, he asked Sungyoon a question.

"Did you find anything out of the ordinary?"

"No. Nothing. What about you, Sir Russell?"

"It was the same for us. The only things we saw were stairs and stone walls."

Russell knocked on the wall.

"Let's copy each other's map.

When Grace heard Sungyoon's words, she stepped forward. A member of Russell's party did the same. The two of them looked at each other's maps, then filled in the empty spots on the map.

"You filled in a lot."

Russell spoke as he glanced at the map that was starting to become fleshed out.

"We occasionally ran into other parties and exchanged information. Moreover, we've been doing this for a while."

"It's our biggest problem right now."

Russell's voice became full of worry.

"We have no idea for how long our troops can hold out outside the tower."

"Has it been a day since we entered the tower?"

Sungyoon looked at his watch.

"Yes, it has. We brought a lot of the elite Connectors, but Connectors are a sturdy bunch. They won't break from fighting for a day. However, the casualties must be mounting."

"I copied it all."

Grace returned to the party with the newly-revised map. Sungyoon looked at Russell and nodded.

"Let's start moving once again. We have no time to waste."

"We should."

Russell agreed with him.

"Be careful."

"You too, Sir Russell."

The two parties walked past each other and forged ahead once again.

"Do you think the map is close to being finished?"

Sungyoon asked Grace.

"We've checked most of the paths. Only a few are left to explore."

It meant that their task was close to being finished. However, no one in the party looked thrilled about that prospect.

"We have no idea if the unexplored paths diverge further."

As Tim lamented, the unexplored paths might diverge further into numerous paths. However, this worry paled in front of their other worry.

"What if we don't find anything abnormal even after searching through all the paths?"

No one replied to Emily. As they slowly mapped out the entire tower, their biggest worry was finding nothing.

"Let's worry about that after we've searched all the tunnels."

Sungyoon tried to soothe the others. He and his party members pressed down on their worries as they started walking once again.

"You're probably right, Mr. Sungyoon. We should worry after we—"

Tim abruptly stopped. He came to a halt as he looked at his surroundings. Sungyoon and the others acted the same.

"... What the hell is this?"

Tim's words expressed what everyone was feeling.

Sungyoon slowly looked around his surroundings and spoke in a low voice.

"... It seems we found the 'something' that we've been searching for."

The stone walls surrounding the staircase had disappeared from sight, and they could only see darkness. However, the darkness didn't mean that they were unable to see. Connectors could see their surroundings using magical energy, and there was plenty of magical energy in this place.

In fact, the magical energy in this place was very dense. It was like being in a Great Labyrinth. Their vision hadn't been blocked.

"There is nothing here."

Emily's voice rang through the space. Tim carefully waved his hand toward his side, and his arm moved through the space without disturbing anything.

This space had nothing except the staircase that Sungyoon's party was standing on.

"L... let's head back for now. Sir Russell said we should return if we found something out of the ordinary."

Emily expressed her opinion, but Grace disagreed with her.

"I want to, but we have no way of doing that."

"No way of doing what?"

Instead of saying anything, Grace pointed backward. Emily's eyes widened when she turned around to look behind her.

"The staircase... is gone?"

The stairs came to an abrupt stop behind them as if the staircase hadn't been built beyond where they were standing. When everyone turned around, only absolute darkness greeted them.

"Huh? What the hell? We came here using the stairs!"

"Please stay calm."

Sungyoon pacified the flustered Tim.

"This is probably the distortion of space that has been troubling us up until now."

"What should we do?"

Grace asked for Sungyoon's opinion.

Sungyoon stood at the edge of the severed staircase and looked down.

"I'm guessing it'll be a bad idea to jump off here."

Tim, Emily, and Grace nodded at the same time.

"Since we can't go back, we have only one option left."

Sungyoon looked up the staircase, and the others followed his gaze.

Unlike the dead-end behind them, the stairs continued upward. Moreover, they could see light emanating from an exit.

"Let's go. We have no other choice."

Sungyoon and his party members started climbing up the staircase.