Entering the Labyrinth

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The instant we set foot on the 11th Floor, a message window appeared.

This was no longer the tutorial. There were no floor missions. Even that order to break through the Labyrinth was optional — ignoring it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest.

Climbing the Tower from here on was encouraged, but it wasn't mandatory, which meant some people simply gave up. They were the ones who stopped climbing and made a life inside the Tower instead. Having abandoned the ascent, they could never leave — but having also abandoned the challenge, they merely endured in whatever corner they could survive, and so they did not die. They were called Dropouts: people whose remarkable human adaptability let them go on living even inside this hellish Tower.

The Tower offered Dropouts no support of any kind, and the guilds exploited them for it. Even so, Dropouts never climbed. They simply submitted and lived like slaves.

But I knew better, because Gaia had told me. When the Tower finished serving its purpose, all but a tiny handful of Dropouts would be expelled — back to their homeworld. Earth.

I intended to see my family again. And to do that, I had to save Earth. That was why the kind of brutal exploitation the old guilds had practiced was off the table. But I had no intention of feeding and housing them for free, either. If all they wanted was to survive, they would pay a price commensurate with that. With no effort of their own, clinging to nothing but a slim chance of victory, the least they could do was support those of us fighting on the front lines. They were trainees too. Even if they hadn't come here of their own will, they still had a duty to save their home dimension.

Dropout or not, I intended to make full use of them. Replicating the old guilds' brand of exploitation would be difficult, but under the banner of trade, I could extract plenty. Establish a just cause, seize the position of power, and lock down every interest worth holding — it wouldn't even be that hard.

"So it's a labyrinth this time. Hmm... there's no trial?"

"The tutorial's over. From here on, it looks like we have to climb on our own."

"I see. On our own..."

Nobody asked what would happen if we simply didn't climb. There was no point. Even if someone had asked, there was no way to know for certain. She was only guessing, same as anyone — and she seemed to have gathered, without being told, that I had no intention of stopping.

I looked around. We were standing in an ordinary cavern. Glowstones shone from every direction, bright enough to make out our surroundings without any trouble. The cavern itself was far from safe. It was empty for the moment, nothing more. Monsters would come pouring in soon enough.

The Labyrinth was built like an anthill: cavern, passage, cavern, over and over, a vast web of tunnels tangled together without end. A cavern with only a single passage attached was rare. Like a spider's web, each chamber connected to several others, and the scale of it was staggering.

From the 11th Floor through the 20th, there were no NPCs and no residents. It was a wretched stretch of the Tower that trainees had to claw through entirely on their own. Food, water, rest, sleep — even something as basic as maintaining a weapon or washing clothes — all of it had to be handled by hand.

The Tower didn't leave you to die outright, though. The Labyrinth itself was treated as a system-created dungeon, so hunting monsters yielded at least enough food to get by, and caverns with water appeared from time to time. There were also places called Safe Zones: a handful of caverns designated by the system, which monsters would never invade.

The problem was that a Safe Zone could be claimed by whoever entered it first. That was a system rule. And that single rule had given rise to no end of atrocities.

A first-claimer held far more authority than anyone expected. They could restrict how long people stayed, how many were allowed inside, and they could even expel anyone they didn't like. First-claimers ruled like kings, working other trainees like slaves.

Most Safe Zones faded on their own after a while and spawned somewhere else. But a rare few were enormous, with springing water and comfortable ground to rest on — and they were permanent. Each floor had one or two of these, and around them a kind of Cartel always took root.

They sold water. They took food as the price of a short stay. They gathered reports on newly spawned Safe Zones and folded them into the Cartel's territory. Eventually the Cartels grew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so large that if anyone outside their ranks claimed a Safe Zone, they would wait for it to expire and then murder the one who had taken it.

In exchange for using a Safe Zone, they extracted food, combat slaves, and anyone with real skill into their ranks. Decent-looking women and men were kept as sex slaves, scraping their way toward the next floor in misery. Some even ordered a hundred blows a day as the price of lodging — turning people into human punching bags.

Fortunately, the entrance to the next floor always spawned at random — except on the 15th and 20th Floors — so escape wasn't impossible. People continuing to climb meant less prey for the Cartels, so they fought tooth and nail to stop it. But once you went up, you couldn't come back. Plenty of people used that to run, and the Cartels on the lower floors slowly collapsed.

The problem was that the same Cartels sprang up just as fast on the floors above. People who already understood how the system worked rushed to claim the zones, and the same rot was completed over a mountain of corpses.

Which meant what I had to do was simple: claim the Fixed Safe Zone myself. Set the rules, then move on to the next floor. The ideal approach would have been to leave management to someone I trusted, but I didn't have those connections yet. I would use this chance to find people who knew how to stay in line — the ones who were relatively less garbage, who had decent character, who had talent — and pull them to my side.

Even just setting conditions as the first-claimer would be enough to curb the worst of the abuse, and this early on there were still a fair number of decent people. I had lost helplessly in the past. This time would be different. The 11th and 12th Floors were still manageable. The Cartels didn't really take hold until the 13th Floor onward.

I checked the passages connected to the cavern we'd been summoned into.

Found it. This passage led to Zone 3-28. The Fixed Safe Zone I was after was Zone 1-1. Labyrinth or not, this was still the lower floors. The system always gave you a hint or two.

Target locked, I turned to the party.

"Let's start exploring, then. Once we form up, we'll check what kind of monsters we're dealing with."

Three caverns connected to our current zone. I picked the one closer to Zone 2 and we moved out.

The formation put me at the front, Na Seoyun a little behind, and the rear line of Na-yeon and Joo Ha-yeon behind her. Nam Eun-ju took Keeper at the very back, staying close enough to cover them. For now, Na Seoyun would serve as both Keeper and melee damage, shifting with the situation. Her first priority was protecting the rear — which made her a Keeper in all but name.

In practice, the front line was just me. Joo Ha-yeon becoming a priest had left us short up front. Na Seoyun still couldn't use magic, though she seemed to be slowly wrapping her head around the concepts her skills had given her. For the time being, she'd have to fight as a pure warrior.

We followed a somewhat long passage. As we drew close to the next cavern, I left the party behind and went ahead to scout.

The interior was still reasonably bright, thanks to the glowstones. I moved to where the terrain threw a shadow and carefully surveyed the cavern from the mouth of the passage.

Inside were monsters that looked like dogs, covered in brown fur. The unusual part was that they walked on two legs, and they were holding weapons — wooden clubs, but weapons all the same.

Gnolls.

The Labyrinth stretch was a three-way war between goblins, gnolls, and us trainees. Goblins and gnolls were hostile to each other as well; you ran into them fighting often enough. This particular cavern looked to be gnoll territory.

I didn't start a fight. I went back and reported to the party.

"A new monster?"

"That's right. They look like dogs. The unusual part is that they walk on two legs, and they're holding clubs."

The phrase bipedal dogs put a queasy look on every face. I figured I might as well put Epathos's advice into practice and lighten the mood while I was at it.

"They weren't particularly cute. They were drooling quite a bit, too..."

The party's expressions only grew stiffer. Backfire.

"Still, they didn't look all that strong. Call it a hunch. I think we can take them."

"If you say so, Shin-hoo, then you're probably right."

They seemed to have decided to let my terrible joke slide. Following Epathos's advice was proving extremely difficult. I understand I need to drop the walls. But how do you actually get closer to people?

We were about to fight, so I shoved the idle thoughts aside and turned to the party.

"Reading the situation comes first. Nam Eun-ju, try not to use Taunt if you can help it."

"...Why not?"

"We haven't seen what it actually does yet. I'll leave one or two alive at the end and we can test it then. For now we gather information and confirm whether these are something we can handle. There are twelve of them. Na-yeon, don't use anything besides Casa if you can help it. Joo Ha-yeon, you don't need to put up a shield either."

I looked at Na Seoyun last.

"You're Keeper this time. You protect the rear no matter what. Understood?"

"Yes, Oppa. Don't worry."

Na Seoyun's face was set and serious. Honestly, the youngest member of the party was the one I trusted most.

"We're going in. They don't look strong, but we'll confirm that first, just in case."

I took the lead, putting distance between myself and the others. The party looked worried I might get myself killed, but as I'd noted before, they followed my word almost like gospel these days. There was no real pushback. That wasn't likely to change unless I made a serious mistake and ended up at death's door. Too much passivity wasn't a good thing — but I had to admit, it was convenient.

The moment I stepped into the cavern, the gnolls spotted me and started barking — as if they'd been waiting. I must have slipped past them when I was only looking before, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a dog was still a dog. They'd caught the scent I'd left behind after I pulled out.

I shouted back toward Na-yeon.

"Shoot first!"

"Casa, Fireball!"

A thunderous blast shook the cavern. Whether it was the increase in her magic power or not, the force behind it was in a different league from anything she'd produced before. Three gnolls were reduced to charcoal in a single stroke and went silent.

"...Huh?"

Na-yeon looked a little startled at her own handiwork. Fair enough. She'd said her magic power had jumped by four points all at once recently — and a four-point swing in the twenties hit a lot harder than the same four points in the teens. The higher you climbed, the more pronounced that gap became.

I was already charging. A gnoll swung its club; I met it with my sword. A thread of magic power ran through the blade, and it sheared through the wood without resistance, then split the gnoll itself in two.

Four of the twelve — a full third — died in seconds. The remaining eight gnolls looked thoroughly panicked. I was almost too bewildered to take it seriously. Dogs can make that face? The thought lasted only a moment. I knew an opening when I saw one, and I shouted to Na Seoyun.

"They're nothing special! A bit stronger than goblins! Slightly above Goblin Warriors! Seoyun, join me!"

"Yes!"

Na Seoyun came running like she'd been waiting for the order. I called to her as she closed in.

"Leave two of them alive! Formation Two! Na-yeon, keep watch on our surroundings just in case!"

Calling it a formation was generous. All I'd done was sort our options into defense-first, offense-first, and retreat-first, with minor shifts in order for the details. Nothing sophisticated. But a fight could turn desperate without warning, and I wanted the party used to moving as a unit before that happened. We didn't strictly need a formation call for a fight like this — which was exactly why we were going to practice it now, while it was easy.

Formation Two was offense. Na Seoyun came in as vanguard and melee damage, and Joo Ha-yeon focused on protecting her; that was the whole of it. On top of the base formation, I gave Na-yeon a separate order to watch our flanks instead of attacking.

"Hiyah!"

Na Seoyun's blade flashed. A brown gnoll went down in a single cut, whimpering, and she muttered under her breath.

"They're weak..."

Has Na Seoyun always enjoyed a hard fight? Watching her look faintly disappointed, I wondered if she simply hated an easy battle.

She followed my order to the letter: wounded two of them badly enough to hobble them, and didn't finish them off. The fight ended without any real contest. The party's level had climbed too high.

I'd called them slightly above Goblin Warriors, but even setting magic power aside, a brown gnoll's average stats sat in the tens. Twelve of them would have been a handful for a five-person party of anyone except us. An ordinary trainee fresh out of the tutorial averaged around ten to eleven across the board, magic power included. Physically, those trainees were a step above a brown gnoll — the problem was always the numbers.

Which made Nam Eun-ju's growth, by our party's standards, painfully slow. If this was her pace even with my support, it was genuinely bleak. Other parties would start catching up to her soon. Anyone already in the upper ranks, or sitting on real potential, had almost certainly pulled ahead of her already.

"I left two of them, Oppa!"

"Good. Well done."

That was how one-sided it had been: not a single drop of blood on my armor or Na Seoyun's. We were at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the level where we could fight while keeping the spray off us. If she'd been making wasted motions just to stay clean, I would have chewed her out for it — but the situation was loose enough to let it go. Besides, the Na Seoyun I'd trained wouldn't be that sloppy.

She grinned at the light praise, a bright little hehe of a smile. A strange thought crossed my mind. Had she been disappointed earlier because an easy fight meant less of a chance to get praised?

...No. No way.

The fight had been so easy that even I was losing my edge. Honestly, there was no real danger before the 15th Floor anyway.

"Let's test out the new skill first."

We were short on information. I knew it all already, but the party hadn't felt any of it for themselves yet. I pushed the stray thoughts aside and turned to give them their orders.