Entering the Labyrinth

Grrrk! Grrrk-grrraaargh!

Eek!

This is…

Whoa…

Oh my god…

Every last member of the party wore the same startled look.

The brown gnoll that had been cowering at the sheer gap in power between us went berserk the instant Powerful Taunt took hold. Injuries, terror—none of it mattered. It charged Nam Eun-ju with a frenzied howl, every instinct screaming at it to kill the one who had used the skill.

Its body was already a wreck, so the rush itself amounted to little—but the sheer ferocity of it still startled Nam Eun-ju into throwing her shield up in front of her. Watching that, the others all wore the same look of awe at what the skill had done.

"That could be dangerous if we used it carelessly in a real fight, couldn't it?"

We hadn't dared try it freely on the tenth floor. If it had landed on a person, Nam Eun-ju could have died. Her physical ability was weaker even than Joo Ha-yeon's—and Joo Ha-yeon was a priest—so we had never been in a position to test it properly.

The others hadn't experienced it yet, but a taunt of Nam Eun-ju's caliber was useless on me. For a sentient being to fall under a taunt, the conditions that mattered were level, mana, and mental fortitude. Nam Eun-ju's level was lower than mine, her mana stat fell short, and my willpower was nowhere near frail enough to be snared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by a taunt of her grade.

That didn't mean it did nothing at all. I'd just catch her in my field of vision more often, and feel a faint prickle of annoyance. That was the extent of it.

But against monsters that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠barely used mana at all, or against ones whose level sat below the caster's and whose intelligence was lacking, the effect of a taunt often went far beyond anything you'd imagine. And Nam Eun-ju's skill wasn't some ordinary taunt—it was the Rare skill Powerful Taunt. The conditions had even been relaxed, so being startled by the result for a moment was only natural.

From the gnoll's point of view, a blind, absolute conviction would have been driven into its skull: it had to kill Nam Eun-ju, even if it died doing it. The moment the taunt wore off, it would be terrified all over again, as if none of that had ever happened. In cases like this, they abandoned even self-preservation and threw themselves at the caster.

"Of course, depending on the situation, it could be a huge help… but we should be a little careful. Eun-ju is already…"

Joo Ha-yeon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't finish the sentence. She kept stealing glances at Nam Eun-ju and me, clearly reading the room.

"That's right. That's why I told you not to use it carelessly. You never know. Looks like I called it."

The effect of a taunt. The party was beginning to feel, in their bones, just how outstanding a Rare skill really was.

Na-yeon's Rare skill was Communion, so she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had little way of knowing how far a Rare skill could go. The spirits she could summon right now were only Lowest-grade, and there was hardly anything to compare them against. Na Seoyun still couldn't cast a single spell besides her Dual Wielding passive, so it was even harder for her to feel the difference. Dual Wielding itself was Super Rare on the strength of her talent—but honestly, that talent overshadowed the skill so thoroughly that it never quite looked as impressive as it was.

No one had been hurt, so they hadn't even had a chance to try my skill. Joo Ha-yeon's Solid Shield of Earth and Nam Eun-ju's Powerful Taunt were a different story. They were active skills, and they were Rare.

On the tenth floor, we had felt the shield's power well enough. Setting me aside, even Na Seoyun pouring every drop of her mana into it could barely crack the thing—and that was despite the gap in mana, or rather Joo Ha-yeon's holy power, being twice as wide. The fact that it could hold that long against such a clear disparity in stats was proof enough that a Rare-grade skill was no ordinary thing. Solid Shield of Earth in particular had physical defense that most Rare-grade shields couldn't even approach, and its magic resistance wasn't weak either—Na-yeon hadn't been able to punch through it even using two spirits.

And now there was the taunt on top of that. They hadn't been able to compare it against a Normal skill, so a relative measure was hard to come by—but they could see, in absolute terms, just how far it outstripped everything else. The party was finally starting to understand how extraordinary the things I had given them really were.

We would run into other teams before the fifteenth floor, and it wouldn't be those morons from the eighth. It would be the top-tier parties that had been diligently following in our wake, one after another. When that time came, they would properly feel what it meant that we were at the very front—how high our level truly was.

It wasn't just Nam Eun-ju's taunt. Na-yeon's wind and fire spirit synergy, which hadn't been able to show its real power on the tenth floor because she'd been using it on allies; their grown physical abilities; my heal skill and Joo Ha-yeon's Solid Shield of Earth—all of it became an opportunity to put them through their paces. Purification remained sealed, since there still wasn't a situation that called for it.

Throwing a barrier on the brown gnoll and spamming skills at it, or getting themselves hurt and having me heal them so they could watch the wounds close and experience the effect secondhand—they got to taste, in all kinds of ways, what it felt like to push their own power to the limit. Experiences like that were far too important to skip, so even as I kept watch on our surroundings, I opened the door for them to feel out their strength as much as they wanted.

By the time most of them were satisfied, one of the captured gnolls had already been dead for a while, and the other had given up on living so thoroughly that it wouldn't so much as twitch even after I healed it. At that point, a quiet guilt seemed to settle over the party, whether they noticed it or not.

Now, of all times. After enjoying themselves to their hearts' content…

They had very clearly been having fun exploring their own skills and stats. A bitter smile tugged at me inwardly, but I kept it off my face, cut the gnoll's throat to finish things, and turned to the others.

"I trust that was sufficient experience."

The party nodded.

"I'm starting to understand just how much you've done for us, Shin-hoo. We clearly have a level that doesn't belong on this floor."

That was a fact.

"Don't mention it. We're comrades."

I put a little extra weight on the word. Every small phrase like that would become another shackle wrapping around the party.

"Then let's clean up quickly and head for the next floor. Honestly, the experience isn't worth much, and there doesn't seem to be much to gain here."

"Yes. Understood."

Joo Ha-yeon answered on behalf of the others.

For all that I'd said, I had a clear objective—the Fixed Safe Zone—so I kept leading the party in that direction.

We repeated the cycle of fighting, resting, and moving for nearly a full day.

Food, at least, we could gather in plenty through the constant hunting. Later on they even started tossing the worse-tasting bits. The flavor was all more or less the same, but people still had preferences. Even among dried rations, there were different kinds of fruit and meat.

Rest, however, was another matter. No matter how far above this floor our level sat, there was no guarantee that goblins or gnolls wouldn't hit us in numbers while we slept, so we couldn't afford to let our guard down. If we were ambushed by a swarm in a defenseless state, I—and now, maybe, even Na Seoyun—might somehow make it. The rest wouldn't. Even after we'd swept a cavern clean, each one had at least two passages opening out of it, three or four on average. There was no telling when a pack would come, or how large it would be.

Getting our position pinned down while we were defenseless, monsters pouring in from every passage at once? The thought alone was enough to make my skin crawl. In a situation like that, the fact that we were the only trainees on the eleventh floor could turn into poison. Even if we had no choice but to run, once something started chasing us there would be no end to it. We couldn't afford to get careless.

Fortunately, with their physical stats raised, the party could hold up to a point on little rest—but it was still a long way from a proper night's sleep. We still hadn't found so much as an ordinary Safe Zone, let alone a Fixed one, and that was despite moving through the caverns almost as if we were tearing them apart on the back of our clearly superior skill. There ought to have been at least one along the way. I was a little disappointed—and, at the same time, a little relieved.

I wanted to reach the twelfth floor within five days. Meeting other trainees could wait.

"Goblins this time?"

They weren't ordinary goblins. Goblin warriors were the baseline, and they came with archers and snipers mixed in; a Goblin Lord was tucked into every pack without fail. The numbers were different too. Where a cavern typically spat out ten to twenty gnolls, goblins came boiling out at nearly forty. They were no longer a difficult opponent for us.

"Gnolls, goblins, gnolls, goblins… Ugh."

Na-yeon looked thoroughly fed up. She had every right to be. It was already the second day of barely sleeping. They could endure it, but that didn't stop the stress from piling up. The women were all on edge. Na Seoyun was the least affected—she was young, but having the highest physical level of the group seemed to be carrying her. Not that they took their frayed nerves out on me, of course.

Everyone in the party except me had gained a level. The tutorial was over, which meant the contribution system would be in effect now. Not that it made a dramatic difference even once it was applied—not unless someone was slacking off. If it didn't work that way, anyone playing keeper would end up starved of experience. The Tower's system wasn't that sloppy.

Leveling would get harder for Na Seoyun and Na-yeon from here. Brown gnolls gave almost nothing; at best, the Goblin Lords that showed up at about one per cavern still yielded experience. I wasn't sure how much longer even the brown gnolls would last.

But the goal wasn't far now.

1-2.

The next cavern. The next cavern was the place I had been aiming for.

This pack of goblins was a large one—nearly a hundred. It still wasn't particularly difficult.

"I'll take out the Goblin Lord first. Seoyun, just draw their attention and focus on keeping. Na-yeon, don't forget to keep the shamans in check."

"Yes, oppa."

"Be caref—hh. No, go ahead."

Joo Ha-yeon had started to say be careful out of habit, then seemed too worn down by the endless fighting to even finish the words. They'd already fought how many times now? She knew better than anyone that I wasn't going to get hurt over there. In a battle of this scale, we weren't in any real danger. We weren't defenseless, and the numbers weren't overwhelming. If things truly went wrong, she had her Solid Shield of Earth. At the eleventh-floor level, nothing that could break her shield had even shown its face.

"I'll take the lead, then."

I kicked off the ground and charged in a straight line toward the Goblin Lord. A trail of blood unspooled behind me almost immediately. In a single stroke, I cut the Goblin Lord down.

The goblins reeled in panic. Once their formation collapsed, mopping up the rest was nothing. The moment I dropped the Lord, Na Seoyun surged in as if she'd been waiting for that exact instant and began carving through the remainder, and Joo Ha-yeon threw Solid Shield of Earth over her, giving her a foundation to run even wilder.

When the fighting was done, I let the exhausted party rest for a moment, said I was going to look around, and moved into cavern 1-1.

A message appeared as if it had been waiting for me.

I pressed Y without a second's hesitation.

I ignored the revocation condition and turned my gaze. A management list surfaced immediately. A window appeared where I could configure current occupancy, entry conditions, stay duration, rules of residence, expulsion conditions, and more.

I could see, with almost insulting ease, how the Cartel had been able to come into being.

Administrator, they called it. This was no different from ruling the zone outright. As long as I didn't die, the Administrator would not change—even if I went on to the Upper Floors.

I started configuring at once. I set the entry conditions and hours, and restricted anyone who had already come in once from entering again until a set period had passed. I lifted the stay-time limit for anyone with moderate or worse injuries, and forbade contact inside with anyone other than one's own party members. Break the rules, and you were expelled with a penalty on re-entry; exceed three violations, and the setting applied permanent banishment.

That wouldn't stop every crime. Even so, it would be relatively difficult for a Cartel to take root the way it had in the past. Ordinary Safe Zones vanished with time, so even if someone tried to oppress people there, there would be a limit to it. That didn't mean there was no chance of a group forming once they reached a certain size—but given the ant-nest nature of the caverns, one or two strong people could likely tear it apart. If they all colluded together, there would be nothing to be done about it—but decent people could band together too, and there were plenty of strong ones among them.

I couldn't stay and manage this place forever. I needed to claim the next floor's Fixed Safe Zone as well, and if we killed time here, our party would fall behind. I hoped the Upper Floors wouldn't be the garbage dump they had been in the past—but even so, the most important thing was strengthening our core fighting force.

I finished the settings and headed straight back toward the resting party.