I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 168: The Ashen Labyrinth

"I will accompany the Master," Alicia stated.

"I am getting incredibly bored. My joints are getting stiff. If I do not get some action soon, I might accidentally set the house on fire."

I agreed. She had a point. I had been buying her plenty of fire spell books, but she lacked real combat experience. Having her along would be a solid asset.

I opened her status panel to check her current capabilities.

When the glowing blue window popped up in my vision, my jaw practically unhinged.

[Status Window: Alicia Valemont]

[Role: Maid]

[Skill List:]

[Fire Magic: Lv. 8] (Master)

[Swordsmanship: Lv. 4] (Intermediate)

[Martial Arts: Lv. 3] (Basic)

[Insight: Lv. 5] (Advanced)

[Domestic Arts: Lv. MAX]

I stared at the floating text, completely dumbfounded. Internally, I was screaming.

Level 8 Fire Magic?! How the hell was her talent this absurd? I was starving for System Points, forced to manipulate plotlines and risk my life just to drag my stats to Level 7. Meanwhile, Alicia had effortlessly reached Level 8 in elemental magic purely through my casual sparring sessions and the high-grade mana potions Merle brewed for us. She wasn’t just a maid; she was a walking weapon of mass destruction.

"...Master?" Alicia tilted her head, noticing my stunned silence. "Is there a problem?"

"No," I muttered, swiping the window away to hide my sheer jealousy. "No problem at all. Your talent is terrifying. You can come."

*****

[The Next Morning]

The sun was just beginning to rise over the Capital as Alicia and I stood in the mansion’s foyer, fully geared up.

I wore my [Shadow-Weave Tactical Suit], the Winchester rifle strapped securely to my back, and the Reaver shotgun holstered at my thigh. Alicia stood beside me, her rapier resting at her hip, wrapped in a rugged, unassuming gray cloak to hide her identity.

"Boss Lucien. Take these."

Merle walked down the stairs, handing me a heavy, reinforced leather bandolier.

"I improved the powder mixture in the casings," Merle explained, tapping the glowing runes etched into the brass shells. "You have twenty armor-piercing rounds, ten high-explosive rounds, and five modified shock-rounds designed specifically to disrupt golem cores and construct plating. Use them wisely."

"Thanks, Merle. These will definitely come in handy," I said, slinging the bandolier over my chest.

Ariana stepped forward next. She handed me a thick leather belt pouch filled with tightly sealed glass vials. The liquids inside glowed with vibrant reds, blues, and greens.

"High-grade blood coagulation serums, instant stamina recovery drafts, and condensed mana potions," Ariana listed strictly, tapping my chest. "Do not hesitate to drink them. If you come back with a single broken bone, I will personally break the rest of them. Understood?"

"Loud and clear," I smiled, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. Ariana flushed, stepping back with a huff, though she looked slightly mollified.

I turned to the door, pulling my gloves tight.

"Alright, Alicia. Let’s head out."

"Understood, Master. Where exactly are we going?"

"We’re skipping the lower floors. We are heading straight for the mid-to-high tiers. Specifically, the 20th floor and above."

I needed to push my physical body to its absolute limits, but I also had a secondary objective. The late-game disasters were approaching fast. To survive, I needed to upgrade my arsenal and Merle’s workshop. The 20th floor was a notoriously brutal combat zone, but it was also the only place to harvest the high-grade ores and monster cores required to forge the tier of weapons I was going to need.

We were going hunting.

****

The entrance to the Celestial Spire was packed.

Hunters, mercenaries, and merchants crowded the massive plaza surrounding the base of the tower. It was a bustling hub of activity. I even spotted a few senior cadets from the Academy in their combat uniforms, forming raid parties near the lower-level gates.

We bypassed the crowds and headed straight for the mid-tier access checkpoints. A heavily armored knight on patrol stepped forward to block our path.

I pulled out my Academy ID card. The knight verified the gold crest, nodded respectfully, and stepped aside. Academy cadets were granted fast-track access. Alicia followed up by handing over her official Hunter ID card. The knight scanned it, confirmed her rank, and cleared us both for entry.

We walked into the main portal hall. We were skipping the first eighteen floors. Our destination was Floor 19. We had already cleared the 18th floor—the Prismatic Plains—a long time ago.

Standing in front of the teleportation gate, a brief thought crossed my mind.

It had been a long time since that expedition. I wondered what the Silent Vigil cult was doing now. Because of the dungeon anomaly that day, their cult had received quite the limelight. The media and the Hunter Association had credited them with stabilizing the floor. Darien had even made the national news broadcasts.

Hah. Let it be. They took the credit, and I got the rewards. It was a fair trade. If fate allows, we may meet again.

I pushed the thought away. From here on out, my only focus was the climb.

I stepped onto the teleportation pad. Alicia stepped on right behind me.

"Floor 19," I said, pumping mana into the console.

A blinding white light enveloped us. The familiar sensation of spatial distortion pulled at my stomach. A second later, my boots hit solid ground.

A blinding white light enveloped us. The familiar sensation of spatial distortion pulled at my stomach. A second later, my boots sank into something soft, wet, and deeply unpleasant.

The air shifted immediately. A thick, suffocating stench of rotting vegetation, stagnant mud, and sulfur punched me in the nose.

"Ugh..." Alicia gagged slightly, covering her mouth with her sleeve.

We had arrived on Floor 19. The environment was a sprawling, endless marshland. Massive, weeping trees with pale, twisted trunks formed a thick canopy overhead, completely blocking out the floor’s artificial sun. The entire zone was trapped in a perpetual, gloomy twilight. Thick vines hung from the branches like nooses, and the ground was mostly submerged in dark, knee-deep water choked with dense layers of algae.

Squelaacch.

Alicia pulled her boot out of the mud with a look of absolute, unadulterated disgust. The murky water instantly rushed in to fill the footprint.

"Master, I hate this place already," Alicia complained, shaking the thick sludge off her once-pristine combat boots. "My legs are completely swamped. Why couldn’t we go to a desert floor or a mountain range? Why did it have to be a swamp?"

"Because the 19th floor is the only gateway to the 20th," I replied, keeping my voice low as I unholstered the Reaver shotgun from my thigh. "Keep your guard up and your voice down. The flora here is designed to obscure vision, and the monster are strictly ambush-based."

Alicia grimaced, wading through the muck to stand closer to me. "What kind of monsters are we talking about?"

"Mutated amphibians, venomous reptiles, and giant insects," I listed casually, scanning the dark water for any unnatural ripples. "They use the mud to mask their mana signatures and drop from the canopy or strike from beneath the surface."

Alicia froze. Her face paled, then quickly morphed into an expression of pure, visceral horror.

"Insects?" she whispered, her voice trembling with genuine revulsion. "Tell me you’re joking. Master, I think I have moved my muscles enough. I should return now. Can you give the return scroll"

"Hey~ Calm down. I am the who will be doing the fighting. You just watch your bac—"

Before I could even finish the sentence, the thick water directly behind Alicia bubbled violently.

A massive shadow erupted from the muck. It was an Armored Swamp-Mantis, easily eight feet tall, its jagged scythe-like claws dripping with corrosive sludge. It lunged straight for Alicia’s back, its mandibles clicking hungrily.

"Behind you," I warned.

Alicia didn’t even turn around. She didn’t draw her rapier or chant a spell. Pure, unadulterated disgust took over her reflexes.

She snapped her fingers.

A localized torrent of pressurized, crimson fire erupted directly behind her. The sheer intensity of the heat instantly vaporized the swamp water around her legs. The flames slammed into the giant mantis mid-lunge.

The beast didn’t even have time to shriek. Its thick, heat-resistant carapace melted into slag in a fraction of a second, and its internal organs boiled. It hit the swamp water a moment later as a completely charred, smoking husk.

"Gross. Gross. Absolutely disgusting," Alicia muttered rapidly, brushing imaginary dirt off her shoulders, her eyes twitching.

"Nice reaction time," I noted. Her mastery over fire was so refined now that there was zero casting delay.

However, the loud hiss of evaporating water and the sudden flash of light had consequences.

Rustle. Splash. Splash.

The murky water around us began to froth. The thick canopy above rustled violently. The scent of a roasted comrade had alerted the rest of the hive. Dozens of glowing, compound eyes pierced the gloom. Giant mud-spiders dropped from the weeping trees, and more armored mantises rose from the depths of the swamp, surrounding us.

I cracked my neck, a tight smile forming on my face.

"Time to move some muscles"