The Sword Spirits’ Advice, and the Road to Babilgrid
Inheritance (Phase 1) – Critical Strike
— Consumes Soul Power to make the next attack deal critical damage to the enemy.
— Inheritance Additional Effect (Locked)
At last, I had inherited a unique trait from the Invisible Sword.
As I looked it over, one line caught my attention.
“So there’s something called an additional inheritance effect.”
[Invisible Sword: What? There should only be one line of description.]
The basic description was exactly what the Invisible Sword had said.
The line that read Inheritance Additional Effect (Locked) seemed to be tied to my own trait.
“It does say it’s locked.”
[Sword Master: Does that mean inherited traits can also gain extra effects?]
[Sapier: Perhaps it’s this user’s own special trait.]
[Lassu Feedwagon: Since it says locked, it doesn’t look like something you can use right away.]
[Quick-Draw Master: We’ll have to watch and see.]
For now, it seemed there was no way to know.
Maybe some other function would be added someday.
[Quick-Draw Master: Next time, I will definitely pass down my unique trait to you…!]
[Emperor Augustus: No! Next is This Emperor’s turn!]
[Sapier: No. It’s my turn.]
In any case, the inheritance was over.
The sword spirits were already clamoring that next they’d pass down their own traits.
Judging by the fact that my first unique trait was called Inheritance (Phase 1), the next one was probably Inheritance Phase 2.
If that happened, there was a high chance I could inherit the second unique trait of the sword spirits as well.
There would be more choices then. I’d think about it again when the time came.
“I’d like to get at least a little sleep.”
[Sword Master: All right. We’ll wake you when it’s time to leave.]
It was getting late.
Tomorrow morning, I had to head for Babilgrid.
My nerves were still strangely sharp from the aftereffects of the Stigma, but I forced myself to try sleeping anyway.
I shut off my connection to the sword and blew out the light.
Just as I had thought sleep would never come, my eyes slowly drifted shut as I stared up at the ceiling.
***
“The tower is a structure that links heaven and earth.”
On the creaking wagon.
The Lustful Demon spoke in a wistful voice.
“You’ve been talking about nothing but sex this whole time. What on earth are you saying now?”
“We can see the labyrinth now, so I figured I’d say it.”
At his words, I sat up and looked ahead.
Far in the distance, beyond the line of wagons rolling forward, I could see a colossal tower stabbing up into the sky.
We still had some distance to go before the labyrinth city.
And yet the tower was so huge that it could already be seen from here.
It was unreal, the way that tower alone occupied most of the vast horizon.
“It really is enormous.”
[Lassu Feedwagon: It’ll look even bigger up close.]
[Sword Master: That’s because it’s larger than most cities.]
The place we were heading for was the labyrinth city of Babilgrid.
Babilgrid was a massive city built around the labyrinth known as Noah.
That impossibly huge tower was the labyrinth, Noah.
Inside Noah were monsters and endless mazes.
That was why the tower was called a labyrinth.
[Lassu Feedwagon: No one has yet discovered how many floors reach the top of that tower, because no one has made it there.]
[Lassu Feedwagon: As you climb floor by floor, the difficulty increases. In general, the goal is to rise higher and gain more power and treasure.]
[Lustful Demon: That’s why the people who enter Noah are called climbers, not explorers.]
The sword spirits explained Babilgrid and Noah to me in broad strokes.
Apparently it was all basic common knowledge.
But I knew almost nothing, so I had to learn from the spirits.
[Lustful Demon: You’ll understand the details once you experience them in your own body.]
[Emperor Augustus: You grow stronger by colliding head-on with the world, user! Hah-hah-hah!]
The spirits laughed among themselves.
They seemed to be looking forward to me entering the labyrinth.
I had no idea why they were so excited.
[Quick-Draw Master: We’ll be arriving soon.]
Fortunately, we found a caravan heading straight for Babilgrid.
I paid them and was able to ride with them immediately.
There had been no word yet of the Sapier family’s wanted notice.
[Invisible Sword: I’m going to go! Wait for me, Chiyo!]
The Invisible Sword started making a racket again as Babilgrid drew near.
Wasn’t Chiyo supposed to be the woman he was in love with?
It seemed she was in some kind of trouble in Babilgrid.
I didn’t know whether I’d be able to help.
But if I could, I wanted to.
— We will arrive shortly!
While I was lost in those thoughts, we reached Babilgrid.
***
“Pass!”
Getting into Babilgrid was easy.
A bit of inspection and a small toll was all it took.
“Oh… ”
Once I stepped inside, I let out a quiet breath of awe.
A landscape where every kind of culture and every sort of race had been mixed together.
For someone like me, who had spent his entire life confined within a single family estate, it was astonishing.
And once I entered the city, the tower itself looked even more magnificent, even more impossibly huge.
[Lustful Demon: Hey. Don’t look around anywhere else. Head straight to the guild.]
[Lustful Demon: For someone as clueless as you, taking the wrong road is a great way to get stripped clean.]
The Lustful Demon spoke to me as I stood there in admiration.
“Stripped clean? That’s not the kind of thing you should say…”
[Lustful Demon: I’m not joking. Anyone can tell you’re a fresh little Babilgrid rookie who’d be easy pickings.]
[Lustful Demon: A pretty face like yours gets grabbed by some hulking bastard of a guy and turned into a disaster all the time around here.]
“…”
The sentence made my head spin.
Did men really snatch other men up and do such things?
But the Lustful Demon’s voice remained utterly serious.
For a moment, I wondered if he was speaking from experience.
[Lustful Demon: I’ve never done it with a man. Don’t make that face and hurry up.]
“C-cough. Understood.”
Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat and started walking.
Once you passed through the gate, a broad main road stretched out before you.
There were all kinds of shops, along with suspicious-looking buildings lined up on either side.
If you followed this road all the way to the end, you’d reach the western entrance to the labyrinth.
The Climbers’ Guild Western Branch was said to be on the way there.
[Lassu Feedwagon: Babilgrid is extremely wide.]
[Lassu Feedwagon: The guild headquarters can’t manage every area by itself, so it has branches in each district.]
There were a total of eight entrances to the labyrinth.
Using those entrances as reference points, the circular city was divided into eight districts, like slicing a cake.
And each district had its own branch office.
That was how the climbers in the eight districts were managed, centered around those branches.
The district I was in now was District 7.
It was the area managed by the Climbers’ Guild Western Branch.
Each district had its own characteristics.
Among them, District 7 was relatively ordinary.
It was said to be a decent place for beginners to settle down first.
[Lustful Demon: Keep your sword in hand and stay alert at all times as you walk.]
Of course, that was only “ordinary” by Babilgrid’s standards.
No matter where you went in a labyrinth city, letting your guard down was a great way to have your throat cut.
As I walked, I could feel plenty of unpleasant gazes on me.
Apparently, because there were so many beginners here, there were also plenty of people trying to fleece them.
“Oppa! Is this your first time in Babilgrid?”
While I was listening to the sword spirits’ warnings, a woman suddenly appeared and spoke to me.
“Y-yes?”
Perhaps because I had been tense all along, I jumped when someone approached me.
The woman was dressed in an outfit that was almost offensively revealing.
Despite her cute face, she wore a top that barely covered her chest and short pants that left most of her thighs bare.
But the body beneath all that was firm and toned, and various daggers hung from her waist.
“Are you trying to become a climber? Heading to the Climbers’ Guild?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I answered before I could think.
At once, the voices of the sword spirits rang out.
[Lustful Demon: Hey, you bastard. Get a grip.]
The Lustful Demon’s voice was cold.
I’d expected him to tell me to jump at the sight of a pretty woman, but unexpectedly, he was being rational.
[Lustful Demon: Don’t give her your attention. Go straight to the guild, and don’t start drooling just because some tempting woman showed up.]
[Quick-Draw Master: There are people watching behind her.]
I glanced over the woman’s shoulder.
Just as the sword spirits had said, several rough-looking men were watching us from over there.
“I happen to be going that way too. Want me to show you the road?”
“No, thank you. I know the way.”
I quickly got away from her.
Behind me, I heard the men click their tongues.
“Thank you. You saved me.”
[Quick-Draw Master: When you first come to Babilgrid, you have to be careful about everything. In Babilgrid, a rookie almost always gets robbed at least once.]
[Sword Master: It’s a kind of hazing ritual. Though you’ll be fine since we’re here.]
The two sword spirits spoke kindly.
If I hadn’t had them, I really would have been robbed clean.
“But that’s surprising. I didn’t expect even the Lustful Demon to be so level-headed just now.”
[Lustful Demon: You little bastard. Do I look like the kind of man who drops his pants the second a woman appears?]
“Aren’t you?”
[Lustful Demon: I am. But that’s my case, not yours.]
[Lustful Demon: Sex isn’t just a matter of taking off your pants and moaning “ahh.”]
[Lustful Demon: It’s a profound world that a brat like you still can’t possibly understand.]
[Sword Master: What the Lustful Demon means is that even he doesn’t do it with just anyone. That woman approached you for another reason. He’s saying he wouldn’t look at someone like that.]
Sword Master kindly explained the Lustful Demon’s words for me.
So not every woman made him drop his pants and run at them after all.
Surprisingly, the Lustful Demon had normal standards.
“That’s a relief.”
[Lustful Demon: What the hell are you relieved about?]
I was glad he was at least a normal human being.
For a moment, I’d worried he might have been some legendary sexual criminal in life.
No, not normal, exactly. Just more normal than I’d expected, I suppose.
“That building over there is the Climbers’ Guild Western Branch.”
After a few more close calls along the way, I finally walked all the way to the Climbers’ Guild Western Branch.
“It really is huge. It took me forever to get here.”
Babilgrid was truly vast.
It had taken me a long time just to walk down the main road.
And there were seven more districts like this.
[Sword Master: You’ll get used to it quickly once you live here. For now, register as a climber.]
[Lustful Demon: Don’t act like a rookie. Walk in with your head held high.]
Following the sword spirits’ advice, I straightened my chest, gathered my confidence, and opened the door to the Western Branch of the Climbers’ Guild.
Bang—!
The door flew open with swaggering force.
I walked in with a proud stride.
[Invisible Sword: Heh heh. That looks absurdly awkward.]
[Quick-Draw Master: Your tension is showing right through.]
The sword spirits laughed at me like that.
Trying to do something I wasn’t used to was harder than I thought.
I gave up and walked normally.
Among the many counters, I went to the one marked New Registration.
“Hello. Are you here to register as a new climber?”
“Yes.”
“Can you read and write?”
“Yes.”
“Then please fill out this form yourself.”
The clerk handed me a sheet of paper.
It asked for basic personal information.
The first thing that caught my eye was the name field.
[Invisible Sword: The rule is to use your real name, but almost nobody follows it. Just use an alias.]
[Quick-Draw Master: Still, it would be good if it was at least somewhat similar to your real name.]
I was being pursued by the Sapier family, so of course I had to use an alias.
Still, it would be best if the alias resembled my real name somewhat, so if I were found out, I could at least claim I’d written it down wrong by mistake.
I doubted that excuse would truly work, but since they said it was only for the sake of having a plausible reason, I nodded.
In the first place, they said names rarely caused problems anyway.
Ivan
After thinking it over, I chose my alias.
Just Ivan, without a surname.
I filled out the rest of the form as the sword spirits instructed me to.
A moment later, I handed the completed papers and 20 pesoes to the clerk.
Normally, two loaves of bread cost 1 peso, so 20 pesoes wasn’t ruinous, but it still felt irritatingly expensive.
“Climber Ivan. You’re registered. Here is your 10th-rank climber plate and the guide for new climbers.”
“Thank you.”
After a moment, the clerk handed me a strange plaque made of stone marked with the number 10, along with a sheet of paper.
My name and other details were written on the plaque.
The first rank every climber began at was 10th rank.
As you reached higher floors, you could raise your rank.
The paper labeled Guide for New Climbers was packed with all kinds of information.
Just as I was about to read it, one of the sword spirits started making a racket inside my head.
[Invisible Sword: Good, now that registration’s done, let’s go rescue Chiyo!]
[Sapier: I won’t waste my precious time helping you stalk someone.]
[Invisible Sword: What? Hey, old lady! Chiyo is in danger, cough, ack—]
[Sapier: Don’t call me old lady!]
The Invisible Sword got beaten up for putting his foot in his mouth.
He’d been singing Chiyo’s name nonstop since before, and in the end Sapier put him down.
“Is that all right? I mean, the matter of that Chiyo person being in danger…”
I was concerned, so after the sounds of the beating stopped, I asked about it.
The other sword spirits replied as if nothing were wrong.
[Quick-Draw Master: It has nothing to do with you. Ignore it.]
[Lassu Feedwagon: That fool is just making a fuss. At the very least, there are other things more important to you right now.]
‘Something more important to me?’
[Lustful Demon: What are you asking for? Of course you need to go straight into the labyrinth.]