Old People Don’t Hold Hands - Chapter 152



Only Krnovel

Episode 152, The Lost Child (1)

After a long period of feeling like I was falling endlessly into the darkness.

We could have fallen into either worldline.

“Huh, huk… … !”

… … As soon as I arrived here, it was difficult to even breathe.

As if the air was much denser than before.

I felt a little uncomfortable breathing.

Nana, Inogen, and Nowen, who had a certain level of physical ability, were able to adapt to it.

Diana, who had somewhat enhanced her physical abilities, felt a little dizzy and stumbled for a moment.

“Huh, gasp, s, breath, ah, ah, uh, ugh… … !”

Even Biella, whose physical abilities are lower than Diana’s, has difficulty even breathing.

He just kept opening and closing his mouth.

… … Now that I think about it, when you enter the 4th floor, this message appears.

[The density of magic power increases, making it more difficult to breathe.]

When this phrase appears, your stamina stat will initially drop slightly depending on your physical abilities.

The only good thing is that as I breathed, it gradually returned to its original level.

Knowing that, I tell Biella and Diana to take a deep breath for a moment… … .

“Whew, Whew, I can finally live, really… … .”

Biella, who had finally caught her breath, said in relief.

“Kikki, he’s human after all. Just because of something like that… … .”

“Oh, that’s all! I had such a hard time… …!”

When Viella was about to shout in anger at Inogen’s words.

I put my index finger to my lips and signaled for silence.

When Biella and Inogen saw that, their faces hardened and their mouths shut.

It was obvious why the two were kept quiet.

That makes sense, aren’t we still in a labyrinth?

The place we were in, unlike the lower floors of the labyrinth, was a world line on the 4th floor.

“… … .”

While everyone was silent and tense, I cast Ignite first to bring fire.

Even though I just waved my hand and illuminated the dark surroundings.

There was nothing to be seen.

… … Has there ever been a world line that blocks the view like this?

Because the difficulty level increases from the 4th floor onwards, it is common for world lines to have a field-limiting debuff applied to the entire field.

There was no place that I immediately got a feel for.

“Let’s look around a bit more first… … .”

… … Just as I was about to say I would see it.

Ah, ahhh, … … ahh, ahhh, ahhh… … !

A loud noise was heard, as if it were going to engulf the entire field.

It also sounded like a woman’s scream.

It was strange how the sound continued without any strength, but loudly.

And above all, if there is something peculiar about the sound… … .

“… … !”

Although I could only see the silhouette, I was able to secure my field of vision when I heard the scream.

The sound of a woman screaming helplessly could be heard periodically.

A world line where visibility is slightly secured thanks to that wave… … .

Seeing these features, I could finally realize where this place was.

Right in the beginning of the 4th floor of the world line, an empty cradle.

The peculiarity here was relatively simple.

It is usually difficult to secure a field of vision to the point where it is difficult to even distinguish between front and back.

That you can see ahead when you hear a woman’s voice screaming periodically.

And of course, the owner of the screaming voice is none other than the boss of the empty cradle.

She was the cradle’s wet nurse.

… … We came to a pretty good place.

The Empty Cradle was a worldline where the difficulty of clearing out monsters was easy overall, but it was tricky due to securing visibility.

Of course, even considering that, it was on the easier side among the 4th floor world lines.

However, it was strangely easy for a 4th-floor world line, so I thought that if I found the owner of the cradle, hidden elements might appear.

While playing EndWorld, I found myself frantically exploring the empty cradle… … .

There was nothing in particular to discover.

I had defined the Empty Cradle as a worldline with a particularly easy difficulty level, as the monsters were low level and there were no hidden pieces.

… … Considering that, I think it was a good decision.

When I was thinking like this.

Ah, ahhh, ahhh, … … ahhh.

Faint screams could be heard from afar.

And the sounds got closer and closer.

Soon, the men who revealed their identities while making noise approached.

A skinny, tall humanoid monster with melted facial features.

“Ugh, ugh, what is this… … ?!”

“Those guys are the monsters here.”

The official name used in EndWorld is Scream.

It literally meant a monster that was created from the screams of the cradle’s nurse, the boss here.

Maybe they were just born from the scream the boss let out.

I set fire to my sword without hesitation.

He just cut off their necks.

Ah, ah, ah, ah… … !

The bastards fell helplessly, leaving behind only their final screams.

“Hey, let me try it too!”

Inogen slammed his fists together and swung his fists with all his might.

“… … What, what is this?”

Even though the fist had transformed into the form of a dragon, they didn’t fall down right away.

Still screaming, his neck twisted in a bizarre way.

Inogen panicked and swung his fist again, breaking its entire neck before finally killing it.

The reason why Scream was able to withstand Inogen’s fists was because of the passive they possessed.

It had a defense power of up to 500% against physical attacks.

Of course, other than this, it doesn’t have any special skills, so it’s not threatening… … .

Ah, ah, ah, ah… … .

The problem was in the screams they were making.

Every time the boss screams, monsters are born.

The more these guys scream, the more new screamers are born.

So, the more you leave these guys alone, the more they will self-reproduce.

If these guys continue to multiply like this.

When entering the boss room, the phase unfolded in such a way that the boss absorbed all the screams at once.

The more screams absorbed here, the larger the boss’s size and strength.

So, how do we attack the empty cradle?

The idea is to beat them up so that there is as little screaming as possible.

But what I can consider fortunate is that… … .

The screaming bastards were coming towards us on their own.

There’s no need to search for them, just fight off the ones that come.

I easily dodged the attacks of the slow-moving screaming bastards, counterattacked, and dealt with them.

When Inogen realized that his strength wasn’t working properly, he tried to use more force to destroy them.

Nowen easily dealt with them using the treasure he obtained from the dragon’s nest.

After all, what I got from the dragon’s nest was Ajet’s scales.

Commonly known as Azet’s Libra.

It was a treasure that allowed one to reverse the nature of one’s strength.

This too was an item that belonged to one person, like the treasure that Biella had.

In detail, it was possible to change the attack and defense abilities that one possessed in the opposite way.

So, Nowen converted his attack ability, which was 100% physical purity, into magic power.

As soon as the power was activated, he swung his greatsword, which was surrounded by a strange blue light, and defeated the screaming bastards.

They were helplessly melted away by the 100% pure magic attack.

After dealing with those screaming guys, I was able to find the boss room.

The empty cradle had, oddly enough, no guardian.

However, there was a separate condition for finding the boss room.

… … That is, you have to find a space where you can faintly hear the sound of a baby crying.

That is the space that is connected to the cradle and the cradle’s nanny.

The empty cradle was difficult to see through, but fortunately there was no loud noise except for the occasional scream.

The location of the boss room was quickly found.

Let’s put the sword exactly where the baby’s crying sound is coming from.

Suddenly, a baby’s crying sound spread loudly.

Thud, dam, thud, thud, thud, dam.

A door rose from the black, damp ground.

Let’s quietly push the door open and go inside…

A giant circular boss room appeared.

In the center of it all was a cradle larger than an adult.

A boss of enormous size, like a large cradle.

It was a long and skinny monster with facial features that had melted away, similar to a scream.

The only difference was that she was wearing a black, torn skirt-like outfit.

When the baby’s cries became louder, the cradle nurse slowly put her hand inside the cradle as if to caress the baby.

Ah, ah, ahh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh… … !!

Did you realize you didn’t have any children?

I screamed again.

As expected, when we heard the boss’s scream, new monsters started to spawn and surround us.

We tried to deal with them as quickly as possible.

After this long scream is over… … .

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle.

Because the boss will soon absorb the screaming guys and grow in size.

… … just like I’m doing right now.

The cradle’s nurse, who had absorbed about a third of the screams that remained despite our best efforts, rapidly grew in size.

However, since the amount absorbed was not that much, only the limbs grew longer.

The appearance has not changed significantly.

Ah, ahhh, ah, ah… … !

The boss screamed again, but no more monsters were created.

And this was kind of a signal.

The boss’ absorption has just finished, so this is a signal that the battle with the boss will begin in earnest.

“Everyone, get ready.”

“yes.”

“Okay!”

“Okay, human!”

“Eww, that’s good!”

After saying this, each of them quickly got into battle stance.

The front line was supposed to be blocked by three people: me, Inozen, and Nowen.

If Diana flexibly grants additional damage from time to time… … .

It was a form of the hidden Biella attacking by taking advantage of an opening.

There were no particular problems during the battle.

First of all, the cradle nurse’s attack pattern is to swing her long fingers.

Gyaaaaaaah, aaaahh …

Because sometimes it would just cause me to lose consciousness by screaming so loudly.

The cradle nurse screamed again, following the pattern, causing us all to collapse.

The pattern was easily blocked by me, who had strong mental powers and obtained the Frost Queen’s Crown, holding the guy back.

Thanks to blocking it for so long, we were able to proceed without any major injuries.

If there was anything to worry about.

In the process of stopping the pattern during the fight, the pouch containing the branch was torn.

The contents inside had spilled out.

Ah, ahhh, ahhhh… … !

And so, the last thing he did was cut off the head of the one who screamed like that.

I succeeded in defeating the boss on the 4th floor for the first time.

Just as I was about to quickly return to my seat after catching the boss.

I stopped walking for a moment.

… … Among the branches I had dropped, one in particular caught my eye.