The Perfect Clear

Exactly three days after I smashed Lee Jeong-ho to pieces, Jerik lined Kirk and me up and started in.

"You take scouting and the rear. The kid takes the vanguard. Do that, and you'll be fine at least through the tenth floor."

"Yes, yes. I've heard it more than a few times."

"You'll hear it a few more. Carve it into your soul."

"……Yes."

"Don't get cocky just because you put down one dropout. What's the greatest threat on the lower floors of the Labyrinth?"

"Sudden traps, and ambushes you never see coming."

"Right. And if you ignore the goblins—the things you'll run into most on the first floor—what happens?"

"You end up riddled with paralysis needles and boiled alive."

"Right. A man, at least, just becomes food. A woman…"

"Stop! There's no woman among us, so just skip it. That story makes me sick."

"……Fine."

Jerik piled warning upon warning without end. In the end, though, all of it compressed into a single sentence.

I am keeping it in mind.

Listening to Jerik nag, I set out with Kirk for the Labyrinth entrance at the heart of the city. Past District 9, the outermost ring where we lived, Labyrinth Boulevard ran inward through the vast city of Bartus, and eight more fortress walls still stood between us and the center. District 8, where adventurers cleared for Floors 11 through 20 earned the right to live. District 7, for those qualified on Floors 21 through 30. And so on. A beggar like me could pass through, but living inside was a dream I couldn't afford—the inner districts boasted prices that would laugh me back out to the slums. The farther in you went, the more splendid the streets became, and the smaller they grew.

What a strange city.

At last we reached the innermost stretch and came to the end of Labyrinth Boulevard. Knights of the royal palace, clad in gleaming full plate, waited before an enormous, ornate gate.

"Halt. Your business?"

"Entering the Labyrinth."

"Status window."

"No need to show the whole thing. Just the name."

Following Jerik's instructions, I showed the Labyrinth guards nothing but the name on my status window.

"Go. Cheol. Woo?"

"Everyone calls me Charr."

"……I'll log it as Charr, then. But this one is already a fiftieth-floor adventurer?"

The knight glanced at Jerik and tilted his head.

"If a higher-class adventurer tags along, they take all the contribution and a novice never grows. Higher classes get one ability stone sealed per bracket, too. I imagine that's fairly unpleasant…"

"I'm aware. I'll only see them as far as the stele."

"Hmm. If that's all."

Once we passed the identity check, a massive stele came into view just before the true castle wall that barred the royal palace farther in, its face carved with a strange pattern of light.

"That is the Labyrinth Stele."

I would have known it even without Jerik saying so. I had heard about it plenty of times. Seeing it was another matter.

"Looks like a rough-hewn stone, but the pattern is the same no matter which side you view it from, and you can see a circle of light and darkness. Mystery, plain and simple."

The stele, nearly the size of a two-story building, poured out a pitch-black circular aura and drank in the light around it. The sight was close to something I had only ever seen in images back on Earth.

A black hole?

I had gone rigid under the overwhelming pressure, the space around the stele looking wholly alien, when Jerik thumped me on the back.

"Armor."

My head cleared at once. I rapped the iron plates.

Clank. Clank.

"No issues."

"Spear."

Clank.

"No issues."

Every time Jerik spoke, we checked our gear, going over it again and again. Kirk, who had agreed to take the vanguard, wore half-plate that suited his bulk. I, on the rear, had mercenary-style leather with a reasonable amount of iron plate strapped over it.

……The truth was, I didn't have the money.

I blew too much of the budget on mana stones. Damn it.

Old man Johnson's words had gotten under my skin, so I hadn't even been able to sell the mana stones I'd synthesized into higher quality. Even so, it was all right.

Just looking at the status window steadied me. How far I'd come.

Training pushed the skill levels up a fair bit, too.

Confidence ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was inevitable.

"I don't expect you'll run into real danger at Novice rank. Even so, never drop your guard. It's your first time—clear the first floor and come back out."

"Yes."

"Yes, Master."

"Especially you, Charr. Those level-up points—save them. Summoners, above all, can't afford to raise skills at random. With talent like yours…"

"Yes, yes. I know."

Once Jerik's last nagging was done, we set our hands on the enormous stele, the entrance to the Labyrinth.

Flash.

Light swallowed us, and we dropped into a space I couldn't name.

Flash.

White light strobed before my eyes, one burst after another, and when it finally died away a pitch-black cave waited. Here and there the walls held a faint glow, so I could see a little, but the cave as a whole was dark.

This is the Labyrinth……

I swallowed hard against the tension. A system window opened in front of me.

"Oh!"

A sound of wonder escaped me at the phenomenon I'd only heard described.

"Hyung."

"Ah. Right."

At Kirk's word I called the fire spirit at once.

Fwoosh.

Only then did the view brighten in earnest. What it showed, as expected, was nothing but a cave split into paths in every direction, like a maze.

"Any guess where we are?"

"No idea. None at all."

The wry smile on his answer was only natural. We had come in holding on to each other, so we'd dropped in the same place, but the first floor was a vast cave-world that scattered you at random. Countless adventurers had drawn maps of it, and still more of it remained an unknown world than had ever been revealed. Unfortunately, we seemed to have come in somewhere well clear of the few landmarks we'd memorized.

"You got the quest too?"

"Yes. Kill a hundred, and find the exit."

"We find the exit first."

"Yes."

The food and water we'd brought would last two days at best. We had only ever meant to clear the first floor and leave.

"Scouting."

"Yes."

I summoned the rest of the spirits as well and sent the three besides the flame down separate paths. While I did, I remembered something I'd been imagining for a while.

Might as well try this, too.

A little tense, I set my hand against the cave wall.

I took in the system's description, the one that appeared when I focused.

Check Additional Information.

A low thrum.

Tsk.

The bit about a demon realm was unexpected, but the information fell short of what I'd hoped for. Honestly, it was no help at all.

"Tsk."

"What is it?"

"Nothing. I think I was trying to get something for nothing."

I'd expected too much. Coming all the way to the Labyrinth wasn't going to turn my trait into a treasure detector.

"What do you mean?"

"Forget it. It's nothing."

No point explaining in detail to a stiff, frustrating kid like Kirk. The wind spirit's view came into my head.

"The right-hand path is the longest."

"Then we start there."

"Yeah."

I got to my feet and waved a hand to dismiss the information window blocking my sight.

It vanished. The original quest window, hidden behind it, showed itself again.

"……"

I looked at it without thinking. And then—

Come to think of it.

A strange thought struck me, brief as it was. This wasn't information my trait had dug up. It was a quest window the system itself had put in front of me. In a sense, a kind of target I had never once inspected.

No way……

I didn't really expect anything. I was only trying it. The same way I had with the cave wall. I focused on the quest window.

Check Additional Information.

In that instant, a low thrum.

"What!?"

My voice climbed before I could stop it. Additional information I had never imagined.

"Why? Did something come up?"

"Hold on."

I raised a hand and cut him off. My heart had started hammering.

Perfect Clear?

I had never heard those words. Not from Jerik. Not from old man Johnson. Not from anyone. And yet the system was showing them to me itself. Above an ordinary clear, there was something more.

I looked at the quest window again.

The first attempt.

My eyes stopped on that phrase. It meant that once you left and came back in, it was over. If not now, never again.

"Hyung?"

Kirk called again. I looked at him. Level 10. Jerik's direct disciple. A kid who had already grown to the limit of a native Novice before ever setting foot in the Labyrinth. His starting conditions were nothing like a summoner's, who gained no levels without killing monsters. Natives, in exchange, couldn't level up through hunting at all. Even so, for a beginning, a party member like this was more than enough.

A laugh slipped out of me before I knew it.

"Kirk."

"Yes."

"We agreed we'd only clear the first floor and leave, right?"

"Yes."

"We stick to that."

"……?"

Kirk tilted his head. I looked at the quest window again.

"Except."

Kill 1,000.

"We'll do it clean."

Discover 10 exits.

"And then we leave."

"How clean?"

I grinned.

"Clean enough that the goblins on this floor run the moment they see our faces."

A brief silence. Kirk grinned too.

"That does sound pretty clean."

"Doesn't it?"

If that was the plan, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there was no need to search in every direction.

"You know the trick for getting out of a maze?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Right wall, straight ahead. Let's go! We follow the right-hand wall and kill every monster we see. Okay?"

"Yes!"

I sent the spirits scouting down one passage and broke into a run.

A thousand.

The number had seemed absurd at first. Strangely, now I wanted to try it.

"Moving."

"Yes!"

Perfect Clear. I still didn't know what it gave. One thing, though, was certain. A road no one else knew—I had just stumbled onto it.

Then I'd better walk it!

A smile came naturally, and in that same moment enemies appeared in the spirits' sight.

Oh?

Lowest-tier monsters. Even if you added a monster's instinct to slaughter and its will to fight, each one's combat power was about that of an ordinary grown man. What you had to watch for were the tube-blown paralysis needles they brought out when they ambushed, or when they ran. Without resistance to that paralysis poison, a swarm of goblins was something you avoided, no exceptions. I shoved the goblin lore that had just surfaced off to one side of my mind and sent a hand signal.

Fifty meters ahead. Six goblins confirmed. We ambush.

Confirmed.

Blunt as he was, Kirk had a sense for things. He answered in sign instead of with his voice. We closed the distance on quiet feet, and with a little over ten meters left we accelerated at once.

A rush of footsteps. The goblins reacted to the sound—and in that instant, flash. Bang. The fire spirit burst a blaze of light right in front of them.

"Kieek!?"

"Kyaak!"

"Kajit!?"

They'd taken the flash full in the eyes.

"Ha!"

Kirk dove straight in among the panicking creatures, and his spear began smashing goblins apart in a blink. Thuk, thuk. A wet rip. Only by the time his spear had butchered the fifth did my own, arriving late, drive in at the one that remained.

Thrust!

A little of the mana inside me seemed to slip away, and—first real fight or not—the spear never wavered. It shot out straight and true and punched into the goblin's torso.

A deep, ugly punch of steel.

The sensation traveling from the spearhead back into my hand was anything but pleasant. The blood bursting in front of my eyes wasn't a pretty sight even if you were being generous, and my body stiffened before I could help it. The moment didn't last long.

"We're done, Hyung."

"Yeah. Good work."

"Please. This much is a piece of gum."

That got a snort out of me.

"You don't even know what gum is."

"Did I say it wrong?"

"No. You said it right."

"Then we're good. Whatever."

Kirk's bit of nonsense shook off the disgust that had been creeping in. And then—

Along with the system's voice, a beat late, I watched the gauge on my level fill by thirty percent. If anything, my mood lifted.

"Hey. You only got credit for three kills?"

"Huh? Yeah. Looks that way."

"That must sting."

"Sting over what, Hyung? Your light made them easy."

"Well, then it's fine."

Our teamwork was clicking just the way we'd trained it.

"Then we keep running."

"Yes!"

No reason to waste time. I sent the spirits scouting to the right again and moved along behind them. It wasn't long before another seven goblins came into view.

Goblins again. Thirty meters ahead. Seven of them.

I signed the same way as before, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fight followed the same pattern.

Flash.

A wet crunch of impacts. A deep stab.

"Nice!"

"Feels like we're in a goblin dominion, doesn't it?"

The monster you met most on the first floor. In a sense, we'd hit the highest-probability outcome.

"Yeah. Long as we watch the main nest, we'll be fine."

"Even the nest—if it's only a few dozen, I think we could take it."

I couldn't exactly tell him it was impossible. Kirk's level had long since left Novice territory behind.

"Even so, don't get careless."

"Of course not. If I died to goblins because I got careless, I'd be embarrassed in the afterlife."

It was going more smoothly than I'd expected, and a smile came on its own. And in that moment, Perfect Clear came back to me.

"……If we're doing this anyway, trying to wipe out something on the scale of a village might not be a bad idea."

"I agree. Strongly!"

Within each grade bracket split by ten floors, the Class you could obtain changed according to how you cleared it. Even those who had gained a Special Class didn't know the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠exact conditions. A spectacular performance while killing a boss monster. A record so impressive that anyone who saw it would have to admire it. That was about as much as anyone knew.

But.

What if I met the Perfect Clear conditions all the way from the first floor through the tenth?

What kind of Class would be waiting then? The thought set my heart pounding, and I wasn't tired in the slightest.

"Let's pick up the pace."

"Yes!"