One Drink, and the Spear of Edelin

"Oh!?"

I closed my hand around the orange crystal on reflex, then stole a glance at Kane.

He laughed and waved me on.

"Take it, if you want it. Next to what you just pulled off, it's a trifle."

A trifle? Not likely. This was a high-tier ability stone. Even so, I had no mind to refuse, and the question of whether an orange stone could even appear in the Novice tier I set aside for the moment.

"Thank you. And these mana stones..."

"Those too. The Merchant Head will allow it. No harm in a good thing, eh?"

The pleasure in Kane's smile sat strangely bright in his eyes. They looked fevered.

Hm?

Set against the crushing strength he had shown only moments ago, that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slack, melting grin was nothing like the Kane I knew, and his gaze would not hold a focus.

"If I followed my heart, I'd run the rest of them down and slaughter every one. But holding back is wiser, isn't it? Right, Char?"

"...Yes. Of course."

"Aha. Right. What a splendid night. Ahahaha."

Mm.

No question about it. This was the penalty of the Moonlight Blessing.

I had read that it slightly clouded one's reason and thought it hardly mattered.

"Fight's over. How about we drink properly? No—wait. We haven't got any liquor."

Hell. That is not "slightly"!

If this was slight, what did severe look like? The sight of him forced me to think much harder than before about the penalties bound to ability stones.

"For now, let's catch the company back up. Slowly."

"Ah. Suppose we should. There'll be liquor with the company."

"..."

Well. Whatever else, Kane handing over the ability stone and the mana stones with such open generosity was a good thing. I decided to call it what it was.

Even the numbers on the surface were high enough to suit an orange grade, and the stone pulled a sharp expectation up in me.

Let's see...

A low thrum answered. The moment I invoked the trait—

"Hm..."

Honestly, I couldn't tell.

Good? Bad?

What was certain was the lack of a penalty. And if I weighed that against the use I had already gotten out of handling spirits...

...this might be quite good.

Which left me torn. Spirits were the more versatile tool, but this stone looked as if the number it could command would differ, and the gap in raw combat power seemed wide.

It would certainly fetch money. Sell it? Or wait, and use it myself?

An orange-grade stone could not be used until one had a first class. And with only a single ability slot, using this would mean erasing Multi-Spirit Dominion.

Erasing a skill costs a fortune of its own...

The conflict turned over in me, but there was no need to settle it on the spot.

Think it through once I'm out.

Either way, I had unmistakably gained a reward far beyond anything Floor 2 of the Labyrinth was supposed to offer.

"Let's go!"

The commission was not finished. The company had to reach the destination alive.

"Hm? Where? Ah. The company. Right. We should."

"Ah. Wait. This corpse. We're taking it!"

"Why?"

"Evidence!"

"Do we really...?"

I steered the increasingly unraveled Kane back toward the company.

"Oh! You two! You're safe! No—before that, why back so soon?"

"We dealt with the one who was driving the beasts. This is him."

"Oh!? Ghastly thing."

"I doubt the raids will be what they were."

"...Right. A monster, sure enough. Well done."

"Merchant Head, fine moonlight for a drink...!"

"What's gotten into Captain Kane?"

"A side effect of his ability. A minor one..."

"Ah."

We rejoined the Merchant Head without trouble—he welcomed us—and though petty raids found us over the two days that followed, next to the fiend they were nothing.

As expected.

Hail the perfect clear!

A level-up point, again. A tidy reward even if one set aside the bonus it would grant on gaining a class. I was smiling before I knew it when the Merchant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Head clapped a hand to my shoulder.

"Char, wait at the inn with the company. Once I've finished my audience with the lord, I'll see you properly paid."

"Mm. I'm sorry, but I think I ought to be going."

"Hm? Weren't you staying in Edelin regardless?"

"Well..."

I flicked a glance toward the blue portal near Edelin's city gate. The exit I had to take—invisible to them, it seemed—blinked at me, urging me on.

Look at that, and this place certainly seemed a manufactured world.

But.

"...I have somewhere I need to be."

"Is that so? Hah. A shame even so. You did us a great service. And I promised I'd see to your reward."

"I already have what I gained putting down the fiend."

"Char, have a drink before you go! We crossed the line of death together. You can't just walk off! Ain't that right!?"

"Right!"

"Anyone here whose life Char hasn't saved at least once?"

"Not a one!"

The Merchant Head, saying such things. Captain Kane. And the company answering them—they did not look like things that had been invented.

Call it the moment those words landed in me with real weight.

And I do need to collect the Merchant Head's reward.

I had never heard that the exit came with a deadline. So.

"Mmm. Then... shall we make it exactly one?"

"Good!"

"Come on! Let's go!"

I drank with the company the rest of that day. Sitting among comrades I had crossed the line of death beside was a pleasure in itself, but the reward that came the next day, once the waiting was over, pleased me even more.

"Well?"

"I love it. I truly do. Thank you!"

The Merchant Head held out an artifact spear, pale blue light sliding along the shaft, and I could not keep the grin from breaking across my face.

"A masterwork the Lord of Edelin granted, to be given to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one who had distinguished himself. It will suffice, won't it?"

"Of course! But then Captain Kane, and the others...?"

"I'll look after my own. Don't you fret."

How solid he looked, saying it.

"Until next time!"

"Go well, Char!"

"If you ever have cause to come to Edelin...!"

I knew I would not see them again. Even so I smiled, said my goodbyes to the company, and walked back out of the Labyrinth.

Another world...

I had heard that some adventurers chose to live out their lives inside the Labyrinth. I felt I understood that, a little.

A flash.

The voice of the clear, the stat rising with it, and a deep satisfaction settling in.

Mm.

The moment the light wavering at the edge of my sight vanished, the heat—so much higher than the snowbound second floor—told me I was back in Vartus.

Floor 2 really had been cold.

Higher stamina had kept the chill from becoming a real problem, but a warm place was still plainly better.

"Hoo..."

Floor 2, perfectly cleared, and a clean return besides. I had gained two levels I had not counted on, pushed Volante Footwork Stage 1 to its level cap, and evolved my spearmanship. And on top of that, rewards I had never expected.

Very good. If I can just keep on like this.

It truly felt as if light had found the road ahead. Satisfaction aside, though, something nagged.

"Go. Cheol. Woo? You've returned?"

"Yes."

"Yes. Confirmed. Charu—hm. The pronunciation..."

"Call me Char. Everyone does."

"Yes. Recorded. You may go."

Even as I left the return on the soldiers' record and turned away—

What do I do with this?

The problem was that the reward was too much. The Merchant Head's gift I could more or less explain away. Two longspears strapped across my back would look strange, but a spare weapon was something anyone would understand.

A high-grade item, the same as the boots I wore. An artifact, in other words.

Attack +9—wasn't that as much force as nine points of Strength? Then even a light thrust...?

A fine weapon. Merely running a hand along it filled me with satisfaction and kept drafting uses for itself in my head. But my thoughts moved at once to the ability stone inside my coat.

Has an orange ability stone ever come out of the Novice section?

I was uneasy about whether I ought to dispose of it at all. Fortunately, there was someone I could ask.

"Mmm. I've heard the talk. No—should I call it legend?"

"Legend?"

I tilted my head, and Jerik let out a dry breath of a laugh.

"The Labyrinth is still an unknown world, Char. More of it unrevealed than known."

"That much, I know."

"Take the extreme. No one yet knows why an adventurer meeting another adventurer in the Novice section has never once been reported. Same with ten labyrinth cities all opening onto the same Labyrinth."

"Then..."

"It'll make talk. That doesn't mean you need to worry. So—congratulations. Two windfalls in a row."

"...Oh!"

Jerik's words settled me.

"Selling?"

"I'm thinking about it. An orange ability stone, and no penalty."

Watching what had happened to Kane had shifted my view of those penalties.

You don't ignore a penalty. A mental one least of all.

Which was why the simple fact that Special Taming had none already scored it higher in my eyes. Of course, I also had the goblin basket, which could erase a penalty at high odds.

"...It's a stone I can't even use yet, so I think I'll sell it for now. Sell it, and buy a spatial pouch."

Better gear had crossed my mind, but with an artifact longspear already in hand from Edelin, the choice had to be the spatial pouch.

"A man who doesn't bring back so much as a scrap of junk needs a spatial pouch?"

"...Well. That's true for now. Think it'll stay true? If the real income dries up, I'll have to haul junk home at least."

"Hoh?"

In truth, more than that, leaving a treasure of a basket like this at home unsettled me worse. Carry it in a pack, and I worried it would break the moment something went wrong.

"Fine. Orange means District 8. I'll go with you. Or would you rather try it alone?"

"If you'll come, I'd be grateful."

I knew perfectly well that a Novice who simply walked into District 8 was asking to be gouged in a district that was already expensive. Fall short of the rank, and you were not even treated properly. That was how Vartus's districts worked.

"Right. It's come up. We go now."

In that sense Jerik, qualified to live even in District 4, was an excellent shield.

And then—

"Hmm. Special Taming. Peculiar name. Looks like the sort that would carry a penalty..."

Rufus, the merchant we met in District 8, had the look of a classic cheat.

"I—!"

"This friend has an appraisal ability. He can confirm the details. There is no penalty."

"That's... certain, I suppose. Mmm."

He had been smirking, ready to pick a fight, but the moment he saw the system window Jerik let him glimpse—his rank, most likely—the smile turned awkward.

"What brings a man of your standing to a place like this..."

"Enough. Char, show him the appraisal from earlier."

"Yes. Here."

I passed him the note I had made on the Special Taming ability. Bald Rufus's brow gave a small twitch as he read.

"This is astonishing. If it's true."

I wondered what was so astonishing, but Jerik did not so much as blink.

"When it sells, bring an appraiser if you like. And I'll be speaking to others besides you, so find a buyer as best you can. Minimum price, two hundred gold. Not a coin under. If you'd rather pay in goods, I'm willing to trade for a spatial pouch."

A red ability stone, the ordinary kind confirmed to carry no penalty, went for ten gold if you bought it cheap. A popular one, something like Steel Body, ran to about a hundred. Set beside that, the price Jerik had named for Special Taming was reasonable.

"Two hundred gold. A spatial pouch. Yes, understood. That will do. Give me three days."

"Good."

We told the same terms to three merchants in District 8, Rufus among them.

Three days later, Rufus was the first to send word. On terms far better than I had expected.