Beyond the 10th Floor
Pitch-black darkness.
No matter how wide he forced his eyes open, no matter how hard he strained to take in his surroundings, the only thing that met his gaze was darkness itself. He thrust both hands out directly in front of his face, yet even their shapes refused to resolve. It felt exactly like going blind.
"Juni, where are you? Por's scared."
A thin, fragile voice thick with unease. At the same moment, a faint vibration and a soft warmth registered against his throat. Jun, who had been just a little overwhelmed by the terror the darkness offered, let out a quiet snort of laughter as someone's presence gradually sharpened into focus, then opened his mouth.
"Don't worry, Por. What you're hugging right now is my neck."
"...Ah-ha!"
"It's pitch dark like this — easy to get lost. So hang on tight, okay?"
"Ung!"
With that vigorous answer, the vibration at his throat settled completely, replaced by an even stronger warmth and softness.
"This humble one shall cling tightly to her lord as well."
"Sisters, I've thought this before, but even if you love Husband that much, aren't you acting a little too much like children? Maybe consider your ages a bi—"
"Youngest. Enough."
"If you don't want to get hurt, be quiet."
"...Well, fair enough. Age is just a number, after all."
Faced with two voices as cold as the darkness hanging before their eyes, Rebecca corrected herself without so much as a peep.
See? Why would you bring up age? It's not like you're young yourse—
"My love. What were you just thinking?"
"...Nothing. I wasn't thinking anything."
One more chilly voice joined the chorus. Jun realized he was in no position to talk about anyone else. How many times had he been through something like this, and why did he keep doing it anyway?
"Haaah∼. Dohwa. The Observer."
"Here it is, my lord."
He poured mana into the Observer Dohwa handed him.
Fwaaah! The Observer blazed with brilliant light, annihilating the darkness that had filled every corner of the space. What naturally came into view were roughly hewn rock tunnels and stalactites dripping steadily with water.
That was right. The backdrop of the 11th floor was not open plains, but an underground cavern.
And it wasn't as though the 11th floor alone was special. Every ten floors, the Labyrinth's environment shifted — and with it, the traps, the rewards, and the types of monsters all changed to match. The Labyrinth's environments were never friendly to humanity, and hunting methods varied wildly depending on the monster. Because of that, every time adventurers cleared another set of ten floors, they had to forget everything about their previous expeditions and prepare for an entirely new kind of adventure.
Take this underground tunnel as an example. Unlike out on the plains, the Observer's light no longer served as a sufficient light source, which meant packing torches and light-emitting magic tools into already overcrowded packs. The tunnels weren't particularly wide either, making long weapons like spears difficult to use, and most of the monsters were agile and specialized in ambushes, demanding constant vigilance.
The darkness and cramped quarters imposed heavy restrictions on movement — but compared to the upper floors, thick with poison, lava, and curses, the environment wasn't all that harsh. Even so, plenty of adventurers still lost their lives in the underground tunnels. Failure to adapt smoothly to an environment they'd never faced before ranked first among the reasons. The arrogance of novice adventurers who, upon reaching the 11th floor, decided they were novices no longer ranked second.
In any case, nearly every adventurer who had only just climbed to the 11th floor struggled enormously with exploring the underground tunnels. Exceptions were vanishingly few.
"Ladies. How are we looking?"
"Por's fine!"
"This humble one is the same."
"Worry not, my love. The darkness is on my side."
Needless to say, Jun and his wives numbered among those vanishing few. No — even among that tiny minority, they stood in a class entirely of their own.
"Toughie. Time to get back to work."
Ting! Ting!
Fortuna, already transformed into combat mode at some point, gave the breastplate she was wearing a couple of light taps. A clear ringing note answered, and gentle streams of light poured from the armor. The armor must have adjusted the angles on its own — the beams avoided blinding anyone and illuminated only what lay straight ahead. A truly clever piece of armor.
"Illuminate every last corner without the smallest gap. Understood?"
Flap! Flap!
In answer to Dohwa's question, the pink birds rose as one and settled into positions all across the ceiling. Moments later their bodies glowed red-hot and began radiating a soft torch-like light.
"My love. I will remain stealthed."
"Already? You're not pushing yourself, are you?"
"I am fine. A place this thickly blanketed in darkness is practically my domain."
Rebecca offered a pleased little smile and melted straight into the dark. Whether she had grown since last time or whether, as she claimed, the dense darkness was simply that helpful, even the radar struggled to pin down her position in any detail.
"Alright. My turn to get ready, then."
Confirming that his wives' preparations were complete, Jun murmured softly and activated his Triple Core.
Radar — Maximum Range Deployment
Skill — CPU
Skill — Activation
Skill — Mind Control
He expanded the radar he had kept minimized for daily life to its absolute maximum range and handed the flood of incoming data off to CPU for processing. Since CPU's processing power scaled with cognitive capacity, he triggered Activation to boost his thinking speed, then used Mind Control to settle the faint unease the new environment had stirred in him. After that came a full suite of buff magic, followed by Fortuna's buffing holy arts — and with that, their expedition preparations were complete.
"Hoo∼."
He ran a quick check over his body and locked his gaze forward. Jun's calm, settled blue eyes stared straight into the far end of the tunnel where darkness still seethed and rolled.
And then, as if on cue, pairs of sinister Navy eyes began to surface one after another from between the shadows.
Grrrr.
"Looks like the homeowners have come out to greet us."
"So this house has doggies for landlords, huh. Here, doggy doggy."
Fortuna snickered and fired the armor's light beams into the dark.
Kwaang! Suddenly flash-blinded, the bipedal monster dogs — kobolds — snarled viciously and charged.
Swish!
At the same instant, a single arrow split the air from behind. The kobold racing at the front took it dead-center in the forehead and died on the spot. The corpse, unable to absorb the residual force still in the arrow, toppled backward. The kobolds charging behind it leapt over the body to avoid it —
BOOM!
— and the arrow exploded.
Kyaaang!
He had deliberately dialed the blast power way down to keep the tunnel from collapsing, so none of them actually died. But most of the kobolds caught in the explosion lost their mobility.
Keening...
The ones lucky enough to escape with light wounds or no damage at all made confused, pained noises, as if something felt off. Perfect initiative seized. For a first strike, that was more than enough.
"Uryaaat!"
Seizing the opening while the kobolds reeled in confusion, Fortuna drove straight into their center with her shield leading the way. Under her monstrous physical power, the kobolds went flying backward without managing so much as a proper struggle. A few of them scrambled up fast and tried to sink their filthy teeth into Fortuna's body —
Shuk! Shuk!
— but the throwing knives Jun launched punched cleanly into vital points, killing them before they could even bare their fangs. The ones still sprawled on the ground had their skulls caved in as Fortuna brought her hammer down like she was playing whack-a-mole, and the stragglers who finally grasped the situation and tried to flee were roasted head to toe by the flames Dohwa's pink birds belched out.
With that, the battle was over.
Even past the 11th floor, Jun and his wives remained thoroughly OP — overpowered.
"Sniff! Sniff! Gulp."
"Por, no. Bad. That's a no-no."
Their resident carnivorous angel gulped audibly, eyeing the crisply roasted dog meat with naked longing. Dog meat was technically edible, sure — but it wasn't as though they were short on food, and he had no desire to feed her monster flesh. Especially not from a bipedal species.
Crackle. Fsssss.
"Hiiing∼"
While he kept a firm hold on the angel to stop her from doing anything improper, the kobold corpses crumbled to powder and were absorbed back into the Labyrinth. A few Navy magic stones and a handful of fangs were left sitting there alone, as if to say here's your reward. Before those could vanish too, the pink birds hurried over and collected them.
Dohwa held one of the magic stones up before her eyes, then frowned.
"Hrm. It is certainly better than the rewards from the 10th floor and below — yet as compensation for the effort my lord and Elder Sister expended, it still appears sorely lacking."
Lacking? That one stone alone is worth at least five silver coins.
In Korean won, roughly fifty thousand. Three magic stones had dropped in total, which meant they had earned a hundred and fifty thousand won in under ten minutes of entering the Labyrinth. For an adventurer party that had to pour everything they had into killing even ten kobolds, maybe it wouldn't amount to much — but for Jun and his family, who could drop these things with their eyes closed, it was a perfectly excellent way to make money.
"...Dohwa. I think this every time, but your evaluation of me is way too generous. Let's keep it reasonable, okay? Reasonable."
"Is that so? This humble one believes it a fair assessment. Little sister, what is your view?"
"I agree with Elder Sister's evaluation. Husband — no, all of us — are simply not on a level that belongs here. At the very least, the 30th floor is where things would start to feel appropriate."
"The 30th floor, huh. Come to think of it, didn't they say the Hero and the Saintess are currently adventuring on the 31st?"
The Hero and the Saintess had been steadily clearing the Labyrinth under the Church's support since they were very young. Even after entering the Academy, they came down to Lemumni every break to push deeper — and at the tender age of eighteen, they had achieved the feat of reaching the 31st floor.
"Hmph! Making such a fuss over a mere 31st floor."
"By the time my lord reaches that age, he will surely be adventuring somewhere far, far higher."
"Jun-Jun! Let's smash that record ourselves!"
Fortuna, Dohwa, and Rebecca all turned sparkling eyes on Jun. When his wives looked at him with that much expectation, what kind of husband would refuse to answer? Jun nodded readily.
"Everyone quit spacing out and keep up. Express bus — departing."
And so their private time attack began.