Don't Reroll Your Companions
"Aww∼"
Jun waited, hoping his father-in-law might say something more, but the only sounds that reached him were ghostly, keening wails. Fortuna made a disappointed little noise, clearly unsatisfied. Jun stroked her head in comfort while sweeping the surroundings with his radar.
Fortunately, no one else was nearby.
According to what Tats and Carol had told him, parties sometimes found themselves in combat the instant they were transferred into a labyrinth. Had Jun's party faced that kind of welcome, they would almost certainly have taken heavy losses. And for good reason—
"Y-you guys are nearby, right?"
"I-it's a lot darker than I expected."
"*Gulp.* D-don't any of you wander off from me."
The faces of his party members, half-swallowed by darkness and fog, were painted with tension and fear. If an ambush had hit them in that state, they would have gone down without mounting any real defense.
Did Father-in-law speak up because he was worried about exactly that?
Hearing the old man's voice had let Jun keep a cool head and survey their surroundings despite the completely new situation. Whether the gesture had been intentional or not, Jun had benefited from it — he would have to offer a prayer of thanks later. And while he was at it, maybe ask if next time the voice could be a woman's.
Relaxed enough now to joke with himself, Jun quietly called for Dohwa.
"Dohwa."
"I am here."
They said a husband and wife were of one mind. From a simple call alone, Dohwa understood exactly what he wanted. She opened Dowonhyang and drew out a crystal sphere the size of a bowling ball. Jun took it from her and immediately poured mana into it.
Fwaaah∼
The crystal sphere — the Observer — rose into the air, radiating light laced with holy power. The dense darkness and fog that had been smothering their vision were shoved back, forced to keep its distance from the party.
"Hoo∼"
"I can breathe again."
"No kidding."
With their sight restored, the party members all exhaled in relief at once. Then, with haunted eyes, they took stock of their surroundings.
Grass underfoot so lifeless it was on the verge of crumbling to dust. Darkness and fog that writhed as if waiting only for the light to die. A red moon faintly visible overhead. It was a landscape eerie enough that a ghost appearing would not have been surprising. In fact, most of the monsters that spawned in the Field Zone on floors ten and below were undead.
The party members shuddered with instinctive dread. Jun spoke up to snap them back to their senses.
"According to my detection ability, there's no one around but us for now. So let's use this chance to get used to the labyrinth a little. And effective immediately, as party leader, I'll be using casual speech and giving direct orders."
Susan, Amber, and Dennis had only just become adventurers, same as Jun — but they were not the same age. All three were twenty. The reason they hadn't become adventurers at fifteen was that their parents and the people around them had recommended waiting until they hit the Blue rank first.
Outside the labyrinth, Jun had used polite speech out of consideration for their age. He had no intention of keeping that up inside. The unspoken code among adventurers said as much, and the party application conditions had clearly stated that the party leader's authority was to be respected. There was nothing to hesitate over.
"Yes."
"Got it."
"..."
The two women accepted it readily enough. Dennis, on the other hand, pouted in open dissatisfaction and avoided Jun's gaze. Jun said nothing and simply fixed him with a steady stare, concentrating on him the razor-sharp presence he had honed over five years of killing countless assassins.
You couldn't coddle a disobedient child forever. Sometimes you had to bring out the switch. The days of smiling and letting things slide were over.
Dennis went deathly pale and began to tremble. For a young master raised in a greenhouse of constant care, Jun's killing intent was simply too much to endure. The two women beside him fared no better — they could only look on in helpless worry, unable to do anything either way.
"Dennis."
"Hah! Hah!"
"Dennis. Answer me."
"Hah! Hah! Y-yes!"
Knowing Dennis couldn't handle the full force of it, Jun had carefully moderated his presence. Thanks to that, the young man managed to obey the order even while gasping for breath.
Dennis staggered.
"Dennis!"
"See?! I told you to swallow your pride a little!"
He had forced himself, but he had obeyed — so Jun reeled in the pressure aimed at him. The tension drained out of Dennis all at once and he swayed on his feet. His whole body was already soaked in sweat, as if he had just finished an all-out sprint. The two women quickly moved in to support him under the arms.
After giving them a moment to recover, Jun spoke again.
"All three of you. Run your cores lightly."
Woom∼
Three cores spun up in unison. Jun activated his own as well, focusing every scrap of his attention on tracking both his own condition and theirs.
Wheeeing!
The vortices their cores generated. The darkness that had been pushed back by the light began to creep toward them, drawn in by the pull. Jun felt every kind of sin in that darkness. If he ever laid eyes on the serpent of original sin that had supposedly tempted Adam and Eve, he imagined the feeling would be much the same. Probably exactly the same.
Ssss∼
He wanted it far away. He did not want it to touch him. But the darkness paid no mind to Jun's desperate wish — it rode the vortex alongside the mana and was absorbed straight into his core.
"Ulp—!"
He felt nothing. And yet, somehow, a wave of nausea surged up. Jun clamped a hand over his mouth and hastily shut down his core.
"Party Leader, are you all right?"
"What's wrong all of a sudden?"
Startled by Jun's sudden retching, Susan and Amber hurried over to him. Even in that moment, the darkness continued to ride the vortices into their cores.
"...You're both fine?"
"Huh? Fine how?"
"I'm asking if there's anything wrong with your cultivation — absorbing mana and converting it into magic or aura. If that's what you mean, nothing major. My chest feels tight and I'm taking in less mana than usual, but since this is only the first floor, it's not that bad."
"Ah — same for me. It's just that I really don't want to cultivate right now."
"Me too, me too. It's still being absorbed into our cores right now, isn't it? Ugh, thinking about it makes it feel even worse."
Both women shuddered with revulsion. They understood, intellectually, that the darkness — the miasma — was being drawn into their bodies. But knowing it in their heads was not the same as seeing and feeling the miasma the way Jun did.
Why was that?
It's probably because Jun is connected to me by a soul-thread. Miasma is the natural opposite of an angel like me, so I pick it up that much more sharply.
Fortuna supplied the answer to his unspoken question. Only then did Jun realize that a considerable portion of the loathing and hostility he was feeling had been flowing across the soul-thread from her.
For, you okay?
Yeah, I'm fine. I dealt with this stuff until I was sick of it, a long time ago. I can handle it.
"I can handle it" was not a lie — Fortuna's face was thoroughly cold, but it was not twisted in pain. Even so, Jun did not want to see even that chill expression on her.
Dohwa.
Leave it to me.
At Jun's call, Dohwa nodded with confident assurance and swept her hands through the air, scattering pink mana. The mana immediately transformed into pink birds that flitted busily about, pecking at the miasma writhing in the surroundings.
To the beings of this world, miasma was pure harm. To a divine beast that absorbed every kind of energy to grow, it was nothing more than excellent nourishment.
Chirp! Chirp!
"Uh—?"
"Party Leader, why are these little guys suddenly doing that?"
The pink birds that had been darting around the area suddenly settled on their shoulders, and all three of them looked to Jun in confusion.
"Think of them as dedicated support. They can handle various attributes on their own, and through them you can do location tracking and communication — they'll be extremely useful."
Jun shrugged as if it were nothing. The real purpose was to reduce the amount of miasma being absorbed by his party members, but the fact that Dohwa possessed that kind of ability was a secret, so he kept it to himself.
"Thank you, Party Leader."
"Amazing, Party Leader. You're almost too competent. Unlike a certain someone."
"...Amber. That 'certain someone' better not mean me."
"Hmm, I wonder who it could be?"
"Tch! You little—!"
"Why are you getting mad?! I never said it was you—"
"Enough!"
Jun cut them off with a small but forceful voice before Dennis and Amber could actually start fighting.
"Just because there are no enemies nearby doesn't mean you get to drop your guard. Stay sharp. You never know when an enemy will show up — or when the miasma will poison you."
"...Got it. My bad, Party Leader."
"I'm sorr— no. Sorry."
"As long as you understand. More importantly, you seem adapted enough now, so let's start the actual adventure. Dennis, take the front. Amber and Susan, rear line. I'll stay in the middle and move flexibly depending on the situation."
Following Jun's orders, the party members took their positions.
"For, Susan. Can either of you sense a direction with holy power?"
"Hmm, no."
"I'm sorry — same for me."
"Don't apologize, and don't worry. You've got me."
With that, Jun closed his eyes and poured his full concentration into the space around them. A short while later he opened his eyes, pointed toward the two-o'clock direction, and said:
"We're going this way. All right — move out!"