Beyond the Tenth Floor
Jun and his wives had begun their time attack.
The next house-owners to bar their path were Knockers—fallen earth fairies.
Shaped like spiteful old men barely fifteen centimeters tall, they possessed no remarkable physical prowess, but they did command a supernatural power over the earth itself. On an open plain it might have been a different story, but in an underground tunnel sealed on every side by dirt and stone, fighting them was a nightmare.
However—
"Dare a fallen fairy presume to command nature before this humble one? Preposterous. Utterly beyond the pale."
Before the World Tree—who did not merely command nature but created it—they were nothing more than hammer-wielding midgets.
"No?"
"Nono?"
The Knockers flailed in panic as the earth refused to obey them. Dohwa looked down on them with cold eyes, then folded the fan that had been covering her mouth and gave it a light flick.
Thud-thud-thud!
At once the ground itself became a forest of sharp spikes, skewering the Knockers through. The same earth they had used to toy with countless adventurers claimed their lives as if delivering divine punishment.
"My lord husband, here."
"Oh! A pouch as a drop? Lucky us."
Dohwa handed Jun a small pouch among the rewards from the Knockers. He opened it at once and let out a quiet cheer at the raw ore packed inside.
Between the eleventh and twentieth floors, the theme was underground tunnels—and minerals lay scattered throughout the Labyrinth. Adventurers could harvest them with tools or special abilities, or simply kill monsters like Knockers that had a habit of collecting ore and take the haul as loot.
Was it really necessary to go that far? Yes. Absolutely.
Ore from the Labyrinth—the Demon King's Castle—fetched an extraordinary price. Whether from the influence of demonic energy or something else, the gemstones stirred human greed, and the metals were ideally suited for forging into weapons. Naturally, the guilds were flooded with mineral-related commissions, and merchants opened their purses wide to buy. Most adventurers who reached the eleventh floor set climbing aside for a while and threw themselves into securing ore. At a relatively low difficulty, they could earn as much as they would on the upper floors.
Well—until they had enough gear for those upper floors, at least.
There were always exceptions. Some adventurers abandoned the climb entirely and spent their whole lives between the eleventh and twentieth floors. Industry people called them Miners.
"...Think they'll be swarming?"
Knockers carrying ore meant a vein was nearby. And if a vein was nearby, Miners drawn by the scent of it were almost certainly lurking close as well. The Labyrinth's environment shifted constantly, but never so abruptly that tracking a fixed landmark was impossible.
At Jun's murmur, Dohwa and Rebecca nodded with cool, agreeing expressions.
"Where treasure lies, jackals inevitably gather. This humble one agrees with my lord husband's assessment—those Miner jackals will be nearby."
"Beloved, you must concentrate even harder on scouting. From what I have heard, Miners will not hesitate to kill fellow adventurers if it means more coin. You may as well regard them as monsters."
"What?! They're total villains! Just wait till I meet them—For's gonna teach them a lesson!"
Fortuna flared up at Rebecca's words, swinging her hammer through the air like a toy mallet. Jun hurriedly stopped her before she could collapse the tunnel, then soothed Rebecca, who still looked worried.
"Alright, alright—For can do whatever she wants. And Rebecca, I know what you're trying to say, so don't worry. If they attack us, I won't hesitate to hit back."
Over the past five years, assassin or not, he had taken more lives than he could count. He was long past the point of flinching at killing a person. Of course, Rebecca had only heard about it—never seen it—so her worry was only natural.
"Don't worry. I'm fine."
"...Understood."
When he reaffirmed his resolve, Rebecca nodded reluctantly and melted back into the darkness.
"Shall we keep going, then?"
"Yeah!"
They resumed their expedition.
Whether Miners really were nearby or not, monster packs were nowhere to be seen. That only meant they hadn't run into groups—solitary ambush specialists like Metal Slimes and earth spiders still appeared now and then. Not that it mattered. Rebecca, already dissolved into the dark, sensed them before they could strike and snuffed out their lives in a single blow.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Before long they came to a fork. From beyond the left-hand passage came the sharp ring of pickaxes.
Jun heaved a long sigh and scratched his head in frustration.
"Juni? What's wrong all of a sudden?"
"I was hoping to avoid them, but of course the Miners are sitting right on the path to the exit."
"Can't you just teleport past?"
"Too many Miner parties. Looks like they formed a coalition to work more efficiently. They're spaced at intervals—hard to jump the whole stretch in one go. And the gaps are just awkward enough that hopping between them would get us spotted instantly. We haven't done anything wrong. I'd rather not get caught sneaking around."
Adventurers inside the Labyrinth treated anyone outside their own party with extreme hostility. It was not uncommon for adventurer to attack adventurer—whether for survival or for greed. Using an ability in secret and getting caught under those conditions? A brawl breaking out on the spot would hardly be surprising.
"So what do we do? Go around?"
"...No. Better take this path. The other routes are too complicated."
The underground tunnels were like a vast ant nest. Countless forks and dead ends still scrambled Jun's sense of direction. Lose focus for a moment and even he might get lost.
"For, Dohwa. Fairy mode."
"Yeah!"
"As my lord husband commands."
At his order, Fortuna and Dohwa shrank into fairy form and immediately clung to his neck. To any observer, the passage now held only Jun.
I'll look like a juicy piece of prey... but there's no helping it.
He smiled bitterly and stepped into the left-hand passage.
The pickaxe sounds grew louder. Before long a faint light appeared in the darkness. As he approached it slowly, a Miner standing sentry like a meerkat spotted him and shouted.
"Huh? Hey! Hold it right there!"
"What—already time to switch? My back was killin' me. Thanks!"
"Quit yer yappin'. It's them Knockers we lost earlier, come back to throw another tantrum."
"Neither! It's an adventurer!"
"What?! An adventurer? Well I'll be."
"Why's he alone, though? Them birds some kinda ability?"
Six Miners hurriedly gathered in one place. Their rustic drawl was almost endearing—but the eyes fixed on Jun and the pickaxes clenched tight in their fists were anything but.
"Could you move aside? I'd like to pass."
That was all Jun said. Normally, when one adventurer party met another mid-expedition, a simple nod of greeting was the rule—then both sides kept their distance and went their separate ways. In a narrow underground tunnel, that was impossible.
"What do we do?"
"What d'ya mean, what. Just let 'im through."
"Right. Lone straggler, don't look like he's got nothin' on him. Look—no pack, and that sword on his hip looks like junk."
"Wait a second. That mask looks familiar."
"Ah! It's that guy. The, the, the—what d'they call him. Rookie Monster?"
"Monster Rookie, ya idiot. But yeah... I think that's him."
Having clocked Jun's identity, the Miners began staring at him the way one might gawk at a rare animal. It was a familiar look. But it was growing far too blatant.
"...I asked if I could pass."
Zing—
He ramped up the output of his Triple Core, just enough to discourage any foolish ideas. The clearly felt turbulence of power turned the Miners' faces deathly pale in an instant.
"Y-yeah. Of course."
"C'mon, move, move—let the man through."
"Everyone flat against the wall. Unless ya fancy eatin' steel."
The Miners who looked somewhat competent forced smiles and shoved their frozen companions against the walls. Jun kept his Core output high and swept quickly through the gap.
"Beloved."
"I know."
They left the Miners behind. A short while later, Rebecca appeared in secret and pointed behind them. Jun answered briefly, then turned to follow her finger.
Twinkle. Twinkle-twinkle. Twinkle.
There it was—a light blinking as if sending a signal.
"You really gonna work him?"
"What, we just sit here after gettin' snubbed like that?! I ain't doin' it!"
"Didn't you feel the pressure he was puttin' out? Bad luck and we're all dead."
"Don't be cowards. He's alone, ain't he?"
"Yeah, but..."
Murmur, murmur, murmur.
The Miners argued in low, fierce voices. The meerkat—no, the foreman—watched in silence until two of them nearly came to blows, then finally spoke.
"I already sent the work signal. Too late to take it back."
"...A lot of people are gonna die."
"Drop it. Since when did we care about mercy? Just say it straight. You're scared. You want to live."
"..."
The Miner who had opposed the job hung his head, out of words. The foreman locked eyes with the other dissenters and crushed their resolve, then chose words to fire them up. Peak efficiency needed a carrot as well as a stick.
"They say that guy has storage space worth several wagonloads. And he travels with multi-attribute spirits. So think. What did he come here to do? What's filling that storage of his?"
"...No way."
"That's right. Ore. Harvested at a speed we can't even touch. His storage is packed full of it, guaranteed. Sell the lot and how much do we make? Even split with the crews we partnered with, that's several gold coins each."
Gulp.
Someone swallowed dryly—and every Miner's eyes flooded with greed.
"His Dark Elf partner's nowhere in sight, so odds are she got snatched as some monster's plaything. You think he walked away from that without a scratch?"
"No. No way."
"He's gotta be hurt somewhere."
"What're y'all standin' around for? Grab your tools already."
Afraid of losing their mark, the Miners scrambled after Jun. The foreman nodded in satisfaction and drew a single gold coin from his coat. Engraved at its center was the emblem of the Merchant Coalition—a set of scales tipped completely to one side.
"At last. Time to get out of this godforsaken place."