Chapter 123: Thump Thump, Thump Thump
“…B-Rank?”
Marlin’s eyes widened into circles.
“At our current level, can we really clear a B-Rank labyrinth?”
Lucius firmly shook his head.
“Of course not.”
“…What?”
“B-Rank labyrinths are the domain of Gold-Rank explorers. So with the Moon Expedition’s current abilities, it is absolutely impossible to conquer one.”
The level of a Gold-Rank explorer was at least 7. Considering that even Rosalia, the strongest in our expedition, was still only a Level-6 Silver-Rank explorer, challenging a B-Rank labyrinth was, in practice, no different from suicide.
“However, there are always exceptions in this world that fall outside ordinary common sense.”
Lucius smiled faintly as he fingered his rosary.
“Before I explain the clear condition, let me first tell you about [Tower of Trials].”
From the subspace within his rosary, the sleepy-eyed priest took out a sheet of paper painted with a realistic image and spread it across the floor.
《Masterpiece — Yearning Canvas》
《It can remember a specific scene and project it into the air.》
Whirr.
[Yearning Canvas] began projecting the view of a certain city into the air.
It was a small city with an imposing tower rising tall on its northern outskirts. Far beyond it, one could also see the barren wilderness characteristic of the Northern Continent.
“This is what the inside of [Tower of Trials] looks like.”
Lucius stepped slightly to the side so everyone could see clearly, then looked around at the team members.
Marlin, who had been gazing at the cityscape with admiring eyes and perked ears, suddenly asked, “Didn’t you only just learn that Kar was planning to enter [Tower of Trials]? Then how did you already have something like this…?”
“I am often told that I am somewhat thoroughly prepared at all times.”
“Somewhat?”
While Marlin narrowed her eyes, Bartimir spoke up with shining eyes.
“Do you perhaps also have emergency underwear for changing into during an expedition?”
“I do.”
“For women too?”
“Of course.”
“Oh! That’s impressive.”
“As expected of a priest of Arteine.”
Bartimir and I nodded side by side.
Back when this had been a game, Lucius had only seemed like one of the decently good priests, so I had not known much about him in detail, but he was even more capable than I had expected.
“This is a moment for shock, not admiration!”
Astrimia cried out in horror, and Marlin shook her head.
“This finally explains it. There’s no way a team member Kar brought in would be completely normal.”
“Exactly!”
“Astrimia, we have to keep our heads on straight at least!”
“That’s right, Marlin!”
Watching the former burglar girl and the narcissistic sword warmly bond in friendship for some reason made my chest feel cozy.
Was this the heart of an expedition captain?
“I will continue the explanation.”
Lucius pointed at the towering structure suspended in the air.
“This is [Tower of Trials]. It is a structure that was built after the Valterium Empire’s Three-Continent Unification War came to an end, and its designer was an overwhelmingly powerful figure.”
“Wow! Who was it?”
I used [Transformation] to turn into Marlin’s appearance and asked, and Marlin glared at me.
“It was Lord Graik.”
He had probably been aiming for a dramatic burst of astonishment, but while Graik was certainly a historical great, his name recognition was much lower than Seraphina’s, so the team members reacted rather blandly.
“Uh… who is that? Is he someone famous? Unless they’re from the Eastern Continent like Saint Seraphina, I’m not really familiar with them.”
At Pendrick’s muttering, the seasoned labyrinth-management priest answered as if he had been waiting for that exact response.
“Let me put it this way. The Fist King.”
“…The Fist King!”
The super-genius swordsman finally jolted in surprise and sprang to his feet.
“Surely you mean that very Fist King who laid the foundation for the Martial Artist class?”
“That is correct.”
Graik, the Fist King.
He was the orc who had made a tremendous contribution to the explosive development in combat power of the Martial Artist class, which until then had fought with bare hands in a crude and foolish manner.
“Lord Graik lamented the condition of the Northern Continent after it had been completely subjugated by the Valterium Empire, and concluded that the reason the Northern Continent Sapient Alliance had lost was because they lacked enough high-level powerhouses.”
It was not an incorrect analysis.
The Valterium Empire’s overwhelming military might, marching forward while enslaving countless races, had come from sheer crushing numbers.
“So, belated though it was, he built the Tower of Trials in order to cultivate strong fighters. In that way, with a great many Mysteries and artifacts of every category poured into it, the finest training facility was born.”
“How amazing is it?”
This time it was really Marlin who asked the question.
“[Tower of Trials] analyzes the combat power of those who enter and pits them against customized opponents. These are illusions with actual substance, recreated based on stored information about the many famous powerhouses and monsters of that era.”
“By customized opponents, do you mean enemies the person has a fair chance of beating?”
“No. The exact opposite.”
The labyrinth-management priest deliberately paused before continuing.
“It selects only enemies that are difficult to overcome. That way, they strive however they can to win, and in the process improve their abilities.”
Pendrick shot his hand up like an eager elementary school student listening attentively in class.
“Yes, Pendrick.”
“I understand that it is a training facility built with excellent intentions. So what exactly is the clear condition? A [Tower of Trials] manifested as a labyrinth surely would not operate in the explorer’s favor, right?”
“How perceptive.”
Lucius slightly curled the corner of his mouth.
“The clear condition of [Tower of Trials] is to defeat the enemies the tower presents ten times in a row, without rest.”
A so-called boss-rush labyrinth, where enemies appeared one after another and had to be defeated in sequence.
The only preparation needed to clear [Tower of Trials] was skill.
“…We have to win ten times in a row without resting?”
Marlin’s tail shot upward.
She had become startled too quickly, so I immediately added an explanation.
“And that is not the end of it. Unlike [Battlefield of Sun and Moon], there is no safe rule where dying throws you back outside the labyrinth.”
Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on the person—[Tower of Trials] did not provide convenient functions like save points or resurrection.
Fist King Graik was a Martial Artist who believed training that did not resemble real combat was meaningless.
Lucius spoke in a low voice.
“That is why Sir Kar decided to explore [Tower of Trials], even though it is a B-Rank labyrinth. Because of the labyrinth’s nature of producing enemies only somewhat stronger than the explorer, monsters, traps, and environments appropriate to true B-Rank standards do not appear.”
“What do you think, everyone?”
I clenched both fists tightly.
An extremely demanding clear condition.
A gimmick that allowed even low-level explorers to fully experience the brutal hardships and adversity offered by a high-rank labyrinth.
“Isn’t it truly the greatest labyrinth?”
“It sure is!”
“……”
Aside from Bartimir, who looked excited, the rest of the team members remained silent.
Pendrick’s expression had briefly turned serious, but he soon laughed breezily.
“Captain wouldn’t give us a task we couldn’t overcome, right? Then there’s no problem at all. Sounds good!”
“What do you mean, sounds good?!”
As always, Astrimia shouted while wildly shaking her blade.
“Group One will climb the tower, while Group Two will deal with the outlaws in the city surrounding it. Any questions?”
“Me.”
“What is it, Marlin?”
“Kar, why do you like difficult things so much?”
“It is not that I like difficult things. It is that I like the process of seizing results when that process is difficult.”
“What difference is that supposed to be…?”
After lightly patting the crown of Marlin’s head as she shook hers, I took out the pink Mystery Tome I had obtained in [Cherry Cherry Orchard].
《First-Tier Common Mystery Tome — Yippee Yippee, Friends Friends!》
《It builds a bridge between the minds of those who have learned the same Mystery. It allows simple communication through thought.》
“Since we are all gathered, please learn this.”
A Mystery that allowed telepathic communication.
With this, I could issue orders faster than shouting them aloud, and the team members could coordinate silently with each other.
There was hardly a better Mystery for strengthening teamwork.
“Then I will read it first.”
Starting with me, every team member learned the Mystery in turn. There were not many pages, so everyone finished learning it quickly.
“Can you hear me?”
I briefly used the Mystery to test it.
Soon several voices rang out in my mind at the same time.
“Wow, I hear it just fine.”
“Maybe because it’s First-Tier, it sounds a little quiet.”
“This is amazing!”
“It is a little… dizzying.”
“It seems like the kind of Mystery that should not be overused.”
After everyone had each spoken once, I stared fixedly at Rosalia, the only one who had said nothing.
The taciturn assassin quietly endured my gaze before sending telepathy.
…I hear it.
“That settles it.”
Since everyone had safely learned the telepathy Mystery, I lightly clapped my hands.
“That is all. Please gather in front of my house by tomorrow morning.”
I returned home with the siblings.
“Thank you for your hard work today!”
Housekeeper Rachel greeted us with a ninety-degree bow.
“We’ll go upstairs first….”
“I think I should sleep early tonight.”
After the siblings went up to the second floor first to sleep, I sat quietly on the sofa, and Rachel quickly came running over and dropped to one knee.
“Cultist. I have a report.”
“Understood. But why did you not report earlier and only wait until night?”
“Because it looks cooler that way.”
“Ah, that is true.”
Important conversations between cultists were originally meant to happen only after the world had gone dark. If you exchanged words under blazing sunlight, would that not make you look far too bright and positive?
“As you instructed before the guild war began, I secretly entered the home of Raenis, the explorer from the Fire Turtle Guild, and performed a ‘forced ownership transfer.’ At first, I did not understand why you had targeted that elf in particular, but now I do.”
Rachel took an item out of the standard-grade subspace inside her bracelet.
It was a disc-shaped device filled with intricate mechanisms of a level no ordinary artisan could ever produce.
An astronomical observation instrument.
《Artifact — Starry Night Follower》
《It allows comfortable communication with another party possessing the same tool, and also allows the exchange of items. However, it can only be used at night.》
“It was hidden so thoroughly that it took quite a while just to find it.”
“You have truly worked hard.”
I accepted [Starry Night Follower] and wrapped it all around with spider silk.
Then I stuffed it into subspace.
“Cultist. But why did you have me change the ownership of that artifact?”
“Because it can be put to highly useful use.”
This artifact had two uses.
Communication among the Six Apostles.
And when the Great Monster dwelling in [Nightmare Dungeon] gave orders to the Six Apostles.
《The Wise One is delighted that a means has now been secured to eavesdrop on communication between the Great Monster and the Six Apostles!》
[Starry Night Follower] was one of the only means by which that Great Monster could communicate with beings in reality.
That was why the Schemer had hidden it in the house, accounting even for the possibility that his own plan might fail.
So that later, one of the other Six Apostles could secretly retrieve it.
Of course, that was no longer possible now.
They probably haven’t realized it yet….
But from the moment they realized I had this, it would become difficult for them to communicate properly. So they would try to kill me and forcibly retrieve it.
Since they would fear the royal Peacekeeping Corps, naturally they would not kill me in downtown Pletika, but would instead try to eliminate me quietly inside a labyrinth.
…Come quickly.
Thump thump.
I had obtained an artificial means of labyrinth enhancement that made my heart beat with excitement.