[The Last Day].
One of the active skills used by the first-grade monster, Sniktura.
Its effects are quite diverse.
BOOOOM—!!
A meteor falls from the sky.
Flash—!!
A lightning bolt slams down, carrying damage comparable to a third-tier attack spell.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—!!!
The ground quakes, caving in and temporarily rendering the area impassable.
As the name suggests, [The Last Day] unleashes a barrage of terrifying, apocalyptic effects.
Within a 10km radius, for 24 hours straight.
“Huh? Sounds great to me! It’s like the monsters get wiped out without us lifting a finger!”
Ainard, wide-eyed and cheerful, gave her innocent take on the situation, but I didn’t bother to explain further.
Barbarians learn best through experience.
Flash—!!
“...!!”
As lightning slammed straight into her head, Ainard convulsed silently, unable even to scream.
This was the main problem with [The Last Day].
BOOOOM—!!
Yes, the meteors, the lightning, the general end-of-the-world aesthetic was impressive and destructive...
But the real issue was that it hit everyone. Allies, enemies—no discrimination.
“A-Are you all right, Prnelin?!”
“U-Urgh... I-I’m fine... Except I-I can’t move my jaw—!”
Flash—!!
“...!!”
“Ainard got hit again...! A-Are you okay?!”
“Urgh... Emily... M-Make it stop! This hurts like hell...!!!”
Having taken two lightning strikes right out of the gate, Ainard’s luck couldn’t have been worse. She cried out in desperation, but all Amelia did was stare in flustered silence—something you almost never saw from her.
Because that was the second problem with this skill.
Once [The Last Day] is activated, it can’t be canceled.
“Emily! Can’t you hear m—”
“Stop, Ainard. There’s no way to interrupt it. Once it starts, it runs for a full 24 hours no matter what.”
“What...? Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no such thing as an ability you can’t turn off mid-use!”
“Uh...”
She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world—and honestly, even I was thrown off.
But judging by everyone’s reactions, I wasn’t the one mistaken.
“Raven? Don’t most activated abilities not let you cancel them midway...?”
“Ah, yes... That’s true, right? Even Ainard’s own [Indomitable Spirit] keeps going once you use it, until its set time runs out?”
With Raven chiming in, Ainard was left speechless. Meanwhile, the source of the chaos—Amelia—looked around awkwardly at everyone.
“Well... still, kind of fascinating, no? That it runs for 24 hours?”
“It’s not fascinating—it’s horrific.”
“This is bad. If Prnelin reacts like this, normal people could die.”
“So you’re saying we have to live like this for 24 hours? That’s a serious problem...”
“Ahem...”
Amelia cleared her throat—clearly aware she’d messed up.
“So...”
Then suddenly, she turned toward me. Voice quiet. Timid.
“...T-Technically, it’s not entirely my fault.”
“...What?”
For a moment, I thought I’d misheard.
She was... dodging responsibility?
'Amelia?'
I gave her a look, incredulous. She averted her eyes and continued.
“W-Well... I mean, according to your explanation, it shouldn’t have been able to activate in the first place...”
Ah. That.
“Well, sure, but still...”
“He’s right, Mr. Yandel! Why did it activate?”
Raven, joining in with visible curiosity, turned the group’s attention on me.
But...
“Hmm... not sure...”
Truthfully, I didn’t know either.
In-game, [The Last Day] had one very specific condition to activate.
“Not sure? Isn’t the trigger condition ‘when the labyrinth is closing’?”
Exactly.
The skill could only be used on the final day before the labyrinth closed.
Like the 7th day on Floor 1, the 10th on Floor 2, etc.
And this place, while technically a hidden field, was still part of Floor 6—meaning it should only be usable on Day 60.
“So why was she able to use it now?”
Exactly.
I was thinking the same thing.
Skill confusion aside, this whole situation was just weird.
Why had a skill only usable on the labyrinth’s final day been triggered now?
BOOOOOOOOM—!!!
...Was there something I didn’t know going on?
***
Honestly, things had been going too well lately.
Surviving Sniktura without losing anyone, scoring an Essence on top of that—
My luck had been unreal.
Which, ironically, made it worse.
'It just makes me more anxious...'
Experience told me: the higher the upswing, the harsher the fall.
And sometimes, the reverse.
In any case—
'There’s a lot to think about...'
The Floor Lord summoned on the 6th Floor. [The Last Day] activating unexpectedly.
What it all meant, and what I should do next—there were too many unknowns.
But if I focused just on the now...
'Not bad.'
That was my honest conclusion.
Putting aside outside concerns and just thinking about clearing the hidden field “Memory of the End,” [The Last Day] was a massive help.
Especially when it came to taking down the island’s boss—the “Beast.”
Like so:
「Over 10% of monsters in the area have been defeated.」
「The ancient Beast’s power weakens.」
「Over 20% of monsters in the area have been defeated.」
「The ancient Beast’s power further weakens...」
All we’d done was circle the island’s edge with Amelia in tow, and already the monsters were getting wiped out at an incredible pace.
Total annihilation.
「Defeated: Fanatic Gatekeeper +EXP 7」
「Defeated: Haunting Memory +EXP 6」
「Defeated: Enchanting Bloom +EXP 6」
「Defeated: Mirror Hound +EXP...」
「...」
Seeing our EXP shoot up at intervals, it was obvious even monsters above 4th tier were getting vaporized by meteors.
'At this rate, we could clear the whole island in a day.'
We’d initially planned to spend at least a week here. This was insane progress.
Of course, nothing’s perfect.
Speed always comes with problems.
“Gaaah!! That’s ten times now—I’ve been struck by lightning ten times!!”
“Kyaaaaah! Mr. Parab! Mr. Parab got crushed by a meteor...!!”
Setting aside the side effects—being KO’d by lightning or nearly dying from meteor strikes—the bigger issue was this:
“Um... that means we’ve only got five people left, right...?”
“Ms. Raines doesn’t need it immediately, so really, it’s four.”
“Ah... right...”
The “Memory of the End” field requires you to constantly reset the [Doomed] debuff.
But because of [The Last Day], we couldn’t do it as usual.
We had to meet the monsters to cast [Distortion]—and everything was getting obliterated before we could.
“B-But can we still make it? Th-There’s only two hours left...”
“Haha... It’ll be fine, Ms. Marone! No need to worry too much!”
We were carrying our mages around to hit everything we saw with [Distortion], but the drop rate was slower than expected—and everyone was getting nervous.
Especially those who hadn’t reset yet.
“You say ‘don’t worry’ because you’ve already reset, Mr. Parab!”
“Th-That’s not what I meant!”
“Sorry. That was unfair. This isn’t your fault.”
“No, no... I understand. You don’t need to apologize...”
There was a backup plan.
In the worst-case scenario, we could send the un-reset members through the portal back to Skull Island.
At least that would lift the [Doomed] effect.
'Problem is, with the Floor Lord summoned outside, it’s not exactly safe out there either...'
Still, risky was better than certain death.
「Time remaining until death: 01:50:17.」
With under two hours left before [Doomed] hit, we poured everything into getting more Original Sins.
And finally—
「Riris Marone has consumed ‘Original Sin’.」
「Beleg Shusia di Tersia has consumed ‘Original Sin’.」
Two more resets. And then—we got another drop.
Which meant only one person left.
“Oh...!”
For some reason, as soon as the next Original Sin dropped, Guildmaster Ilia Adnus visibly brightened.
I had nothing to say about that part, but what came next was a problem.
“...Ahem! At last... my turn...”
I couldn’t ignore that.
“Your turn?”
“...?”
“There’s still one person who hasn’t gotten one.”
“Oh, you mean him?”
Adnus glanced at Auyen beside Amelia.
Still, he didn’t look particularly concerned.
“Haha, don’t joke. It’s not ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) like we were feeding them in strict order. From what I’ve seen, you prioritized the front-line fighters, then moved down the ranks. You’re picking based on usefulness in the expedition, right?”
Wow. He actually figured that out?
Guess being a career politician sharpens the mind.
Still, if he was that sharp, how could he not realize this?
“Auyen is next.”
By priority, you’re last, pal.
***
Naturally, there was a little drama over the order.
Guildmaster Adnus shot me a disapproving look.
“What’s with that face?”
“...I didn’t make any face...”
Yeah, right. Like hell you didn’t.
“You think you’re more useful to the expedition than Auyen?”
Eventually, I decided to just ask him outright. He answered like he’d been waiting.
“Ahem... I may be retired, and not much to look at here, but my skills don’t pale next to anyone’s...”
From the sound of it, he was annoyed that a navigator like Auyen had been given priority over him.
“I-It’s fine. I can go last...”
“What do you mean, ‘it’s fine’?”
“I mean... Lord Adnus is far more capable than I am, and—”
That annoyed me.
Was he just trying to prevent conflict? Or was he actually that humble?
Either way, I couldn’t let it slide.
Didn’t matter if the guy used to be a Guildmaster.
“Auyen, you’re a member of our Anabada Clan.”
“...”
“And he isn’t. Is there really anything else to consider?”
“...”
“If not, take it. Adnus will get the next one.”
Hierarchy exists for a reason.
“That’s the end of it. No time for questions.”
I cut the discussion off fast. Adnus didn’t argue.
He knew.
Out here, my word was law.
「Auyen Rockrove has consumed ‘Original Sin’.」
「Fire resistance permanently increased by +1.」
With Auyen’s reset complete, we could finally move with some peace of mind.
“W-We’re moving so leisurely all of a sudden, don’t you think?”
“Just your imagination.”
“B-But we’re slowing down for real... a-and moving away from the portal... weren’t we supposed to use it in an emergency?”
“Everyone’s exhausted. Don’t whine.”
“M-My apologies. I wasn’t trying to upset you...”
You should’ve thought of that sooner.
Why do I always have to lay down the law?
“Let’s pick up the pace.”
From then on, we returned to our usual fast stride, resuming the hunt.
Eventually, we got Adnus reset too.
「Ilia Adnus has consumed ‘Original Sin’.」
「Fire resistance permanently increased by +1.」
And some time later—
“Up top!”
I looked up to see a black portal forming.
Nothing particularly surprising.
“Another one.”
It was one of [The Last Day]’s lesser-known effects.
Aside from meteors and lightning, it occasionally spawned portals that spat out random monsters.
“Wonder what we’ll get this time.”
“Everyone, stay alert! Mr. Yandel said even second-tier monsters can appear!”
Everyone immediately assumed formation.
Then...
“It’s small?”
“Some kind of small-type?”
“Doesn’t look too strong...”
The monster finally emerged—
“...Huh?”
—and screamed as it slammed into the ground.
Thud—!
[Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!]
It hit the floor hard and landed on its butt, now rubbing it repeatedly while babbling in what sounded like an ancient tongue.
[But I did it! I really made it here! Woohoo! My mana-quantum conversion matrix trajectory calculations were correct!]
Wait... was this really a monster?
I didn’t know, but whatever it was, it suddenly noticed us—and jumped in shock.
[Eeeeek!!!]
“......”
[W-Who are all of you...?]
That was my question.
And the fact it was speaking in Ancient Language made it worse.
[What even are you?]
[Huh? I-I'm... I'm Arta...?]
[......Arta?]
This was a hidden piece I didn’t know existed.
