Tutorial — Floor 4

By the time I returned to the lodgings, the hour was already late. Whether they'd shown more self-restraint than I'd expected or the crises that had hit us on every mission had finally put them on alert, the entire party had come back before I had.

The men were already bantering like older and younger brothers—Kim Insil, naturally, being the younger—while the women had changed into the clothes they'd each bought. A first-class wage came to maybe five silver a day, and the contract was short besides; stocking up on outfits would have been a stretch. That was probably as far as they could go.

Since everyone was together, we had dinner as a group in the dining hall. They hadn't forgotten my warning to manage their condition, and once the meal was over they went straight to their rooms to rest.

I had thinking to do tonight myself, so when Na Seoyun came looking for me I talked her into heading back. I gave Na-yeon—whose eyes were full of apology—a rough nod and lay down on the bed.

I'd already sketched out my plans for the fourth and fifth floors. We'd even lucked into a hidden quest, which had thrown an unexpected wrinkle into the mix. All that remained was to make a fool of Johann and wring every last drop of profit from the situation.

Even so, I had no choice but to be as careful as I could. My actions had changed, and Johann's responses had changed with them. There was no telling what kind of sucker punch might come flying out of the dark. That was why I'd concealed as much of my information as possible, and why I hadn't let so much as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a flicker show regarding the inheritance I'd just obtained. And this floor mattered even more than the others.

Because in the first timeline, this floor had claimed a life. And that life had been Na Seoyun's.

When morning came, we finished preparing for the reconnaissance as planned. Johann handed us our supplies and spoke in that warm, veteran-guide voice of his.

"I've packed a bit of food, some herbs, and bandages. And this is a map. I've marked the basic information, along with the old locations of the goblin settlements. They'll have moved by now, of course, so just use it as a reference."

Thanks to my Information Level, extra details appeared on top of the existing information.

A strange smell. What I'd only been able to guess at from my past experience had just been confirmed as fact. When I checked again, more detailed information came up.

Zeh. A flower that monsters—goblins especially—went wild for. It only grew in the wild, which made it rare. Supposedly delicious, too, though humans didn't find it particularly tasty, so it had never caught on.

"Thank you. We'll see you in five days, then."

"The lord is looking forward to this as well. I'll be counting on you again."

Johann and I parted with smiles, each of us hiding what we really thought.

The moment we stepped outside the castle, I could feel the tension running through the party.

"...So what do we do now? Do we just wander around at random?"

The whole "adventurer" story had been a fabrication to begin with. A handful of modern people who'd registered as mercenaries three days ago, investigating goblin tracks and pinpointing their settlements? It was next to impossible. They knew that, which was why a thread of unease ran through them.

"We'll start by checking the marked locations. We'll just have to hope there's some kind of trace left."

I said it with a deliberately troubled look on my face. If I—someone summoned right alongside them—suddenly looked like a seasoned tracker and scout, they'd start asking questions. That didn't mean I intended to do a halfhearted job. I planned to find more than ten settlements and report every last one.

In the first timeline, the number of goblin settlements we'd discovered had exceeded ten. The tribes had gathered into a massive cluster. There was a reason a thousand-strong wave of goblins had come crashing down on us on the third floor. The goblins had already formed a large-scale settlement.

That faint scent of Zeh. Because of it, we'd been ambushed throughout the entire reconnaissance in the first timeline. No matter how we ran or hid, they always found us—as if they somehow knew exactly where we were.

It wasn't just the map. From what I'd checked, the food and herbs carried extra information as well. Ordinarily, items like that didn't even display an information window unless your Information Level was high enough. Windows didn't appear on every item unless it was something special, which meant that as things stood, I was the only one who could inspect the supplies.

The ambushes had only stopped after we'd burned through every consumable and finally lost the map itself. The intelligence we'd brought back had been important enough, and I'd memorized the rough route, so we'd still made it to the next floor... but if I hadn't known the general path, we would have been in serious trouble.

Feigning coincidence, I marked the location of the most recently relocated settlement.

I stored most of the food and supplies in my inventory. In the previous timeline, we'd divided everything evenly among ourselves—until someone died and we permanently lost whatever had been sitting in their inventory, after which we'd started managing things as a group. We hadn't trusted each other enough back then anyway.

This time was different. The team was bound as one, I was the leader, and I'd earned enough trust that putting everything in my inventory was a simple matter. That just left the map.

I immediately used a deodorizer on it.

The extra information vanished. Feeling satisfied, I headed for the forest.

The commission proceeded smoothly. We were well into the trial of the fourth floor now, and every member of the party kept their tension drawn tight, quietly carrying out their roles and nothing more. Reaching the first location I'd marked took a fair amount of time, but we ran into no particular danger along the way.

The day after we set out, we arrived at the settlement. Just as I remembered, it belonged to the tribe that had moved most recently, and traces even a complete amateur could recognize were scattered everywhere. The goblins had no reason to thoroughly erase their tracks, so following them was easy.

"We're really lucky."

Joo Ha-yeon let the words slip out before she could stop herself when we found the first settlement.

"Yeah. It'd be great if this kind of luck kept up."

In truth, this settlement was only the beginning. It was the outermost tribe. Push a little farther inward and you'd find multiple settlements clustered together into an enormous village. And then, in the first timeline, the goblins drawn by that faint scent of Zeh had found us, and a massive chase had begun.

"We've found one, so let's rest a bit farther out. Stay near that big rock we passed on the way here. Take turns eating. I'm going to check the surroundings a little more."

"Ah, then I'll come with—"

"No. I'll scout alone for now. We need to be careful. Here—food. Go ahead and eat. This is going to take a while."

Instead of the food Johann had given us, I handed over rations I'd prepared separately. They looked similar enough, and I'd been careful about it, so the party wasn't likely to notice. They hadn't noticed yesterday, either. The food was all dried goods anyway—jerky and the like. Eating a proper meal in the field was nearly impossible, so we'd been making do with simple dried rations. The commission had to be finished within five days regardless.

Using that as an excuse, I split off from the party to scout on my own. Drawing on the physical abilities I'd been keeping hidden, I raced through the surrounding woods, checking everything as I went. Goblins out hunting and foraging wandered the area, but my experience wasn't so shallow that a pack of goblins would catch me. I slipped past them easily, left the first settlement behind, and headed deeper into the forest.

Just as I thought.

It was exactly the same as before. More and more settlements started coming into view, and with them the number of goblins roaming the woods increased. As I pushed farther in, I even spotted warrior-class goblins conducting reconnaissance themselves. Not hunting—scouting. I knew I was almost at the target.

I slipped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠past them, and once I'd gone deep enough, a wide clearing opened up where the trees had been felled.

A massive settlement formed by more than ten tribes banding together. Reporting this one location alone would be more than enough of an achievement to advance to the next floor. On top of that, I'd already found more than five settlements just coming and going. Counting the surrounding ones, we'd already as good as completed the commission. No—we'd exceeded it.

I reviewed the route I'd taken and thought through the safest way to move. If I just reported this, Na Seoyun would make it to the fifth floor without any trouble. Complete the commission properly, then send her safely on to the next floor. That was the best-case scenario I had in mind.

Quite a bit of time had passed, so it was about time to head back. Part of me wanted to just mark it on the map myself and turn around with the party immediately, but that would leave the evidence too thin. I mulled over a better route as I returned to where the others were waiting.

"You're back. You were gone a while."

"Looks like I made you worry."

The party lit up at my return. I'd been later than expected, and it seemed unease had started to settle over them. Fair enough. I'd been leading them from the very beginning. Somewhere along the way, I'd become the party's emotional anchor.

"I found another settlement."

"Wait, what?"

Na Seoyun asked back, her face startled.

"It was a coincidence. I marked this settlement on the map and headed farther in, and there was another one. I get the feeling there's something in this whole area."

I offered it lightly, as if it were nothing more than a guess.

"So... there are more settlements around here...?"

"Yeah. Looks that way. If we go farther in there might be more, so I plan to push a little deeper."

"If things go well, we might wrap this up and head back soon..."

Kim Insil said it in a voice full of something like hope.

"It still won't be easy. There were quite a few goblins out hunting. Moving without being spotted isn't going to be simple."

The party nodded. The truth was, we had no option left except pushing on to the next floor.

We pressed forward under my guidance. Even after going quite a ways in, no settlement appeared. I'd taken a winding path, and when I'd gone ahead earlier I'd been moving at the full extent of my physical abilities. Just as everyone was starting to wear out, the new settlement I'd mentioned came into view.

"...It's real. This is the real thing. At this rate, we'll have all five before long, won't we?"

Kim Insil agreed with Joo Ha-yeon.

"It certainly looks that way. And judging by how the goblins that finished hunting are heading even deeper in... there's at least one more settlement farther in."

Once it looked like the commission would be completed safely, the whole party was visibly pleased. Riding that momentum, we pushed farther in and found two more settlements, and even through the exhaustion their faces stayed bright. I carefully steered them along.

If we found one more like this, they'd want to turn around and go back. That couldn't be allowed to happen.

The day was growing darker, so the party needed to find a safe place. Drawing on the map and my memories from the first timeline, I picked out a decent clearing as a rest site. I checked the surroundings. There were no traces of goblins coming and going—just a few animal tracks. A good spot.

The party settled in, erased the traces around us, and lit a small campfire. I'd have preferred to avoid fire if possible—it was a risk—but the forest at night was cold, and beasts might come at us, so we needed it. We screened the light to keep the glow contained, then sat around the fire and ate a simple meal.

"We just need to find one more!"

Na Seoyun looked thoroughly delighted.

"That's right. Let's get a good rest tonight and head out tomorrow morning."

I answered her with a smile. She had every right to be tired. Her stamina still wasn't enough.

Checking with the Administrator's Eye, it had gone up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by one from the seven it had been before. The fact that her status window had been unlocked was part of it, but I believed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bigger factor was her potential. Even so, her current stamina was still the lowest in the party.

After setting the watch rotation, the party settled in to rest, looking ahead to tomorrow.

But Johann was more thorough than I'd expected. Contrary to my assumption that we'd finish the commission without a hitch, things went sideways.

In the early hours before dawn, a large force of goblins came crashing down on us.