Into the Labyrinth

I froze.

The moment that message window appeared, I knew it had finally come. Other trainees had entered the Labyrinth at last — and they'd already reached a Fixed Safe Zone.

Whether they'd stumbled onto it by chance or made a beeline for Zone 1-1, I couldn't say. The latter seemed more likely.

We were going to run into them eventually. Even as the monsters grew stronger, leveling always slowed the way it always did. You couldn't just tunnel-vision on levels, either — stats had to come up too. If it were just Na Seoyun and me, we wouldn't get caught inside the Labyrinth. But I had the rest of the party to look after, and that made it impossible. So we would meet them. That much was certain.

I'd been in the lead, and when I came to an abrupt stop — hesitating at the threshold of the next floor — Joo Ha-yeon looked over at me, puzzled.

"What's the matter, Shin-hoo?"

"...It's nothing. A message just came through."

"A message? What kind of...?"

"A new trainee has entered the 11th floor's Fixed Safe Zone."

I checked. Seven people. One party, from the looks of it.

Most likely the group Epathos had mentioned — the one that would take about five days to clear the dungeon. Honestly, clearing the 9th-floor dungeon in five days was impressive. The elite party I'd raised myself — four women — had taken about three days, as I recalled. Five days was more than respectable.

"Does that mean we'll finally see other people?"

I shook my head at Nam Eun-ju's question.

"I don't think we'll run into them for a while. I don't know what level they're at. They'll be more useful than those idiots we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠met on the 8th floor, I'm sure, but... we're heading to the 13th floor now."

The actual hunting would happen on the 14th. If more people of comparable strength started showing up, it just meant less time for herding. And hunting, at the end of the day, was herding. And besides...

I looked at Nam Eun-ju.

A sudden jump in her stats.

The Tower always repaid those who put in the work themselves. Even with two extra levels expanding her potential, even with a base potential of nothing more than Low, Nam Eun-ju had grown better than I'd expected. That told me how desperate she'd been — how hard she'd fought for every inch of it.

The price of not being abandoned by the party. By me. The cost of holding on, unrelenting, through that miserable atmosphere. Honestly, it reminded me of the old days, and it left a bitter taste.

If she kept pulling her weight through the 13th floor and into the 14th the way she had on the 12th, she might even outpace this growth — climb a steeper slope still. That would mean she could stay with us on the front line longer, not just as rear support. Her ceiling would still come fast, of course, but...

It's not as if there's no chance at all.

If she could keep this up, the story changed. Even then, it was just confirming the number wasn't zero — finding meaning in the mere fact that it wasn't nothing. But still.

"Let's head up. We'll meet them when we meet them."

I said it and started walking toward the 13th floor without another word.

The 13th floor greeted us with a landscape that hadn't changed at all.

"...This place never changes, does it."

Na-yeon murmured it, though she didn't let her guard down for a second. No enemies nearby. Once she'd confirmed that, her expression eased a little.

"Same as the 12th floor — we head straight for Zone 1-1."

The area was safe, but the objective hadn't changed. Level up. Raise our stats. Climb the Tower.

I led the party forward.

The enemies waiting in the next cavern were gnolls with rust-red fur. Just as I'd expected. I passed that on to the team, and they looked puzzled.

"Red... gnolls?"

Nam Eun-ju reacted immediately to the change in the monsters.

"Yes. Their fur was red. They felt stronger than before."

Stronger than before. The party tensed at those words.

"...How much stronger?"

"At our current level, I think we can handle them. We'll have to actually fight them to be sure, though."

I relayed what my senses were telling me. Fifteen red gnolls. A decent number right from the start.

"Since this is our first fight here, I'll take the vanguard alone — same as on the 11th floor."

"Understood."

"I'll let a few slip through on purpose. Fight them."

"Okay, oppa."

We moved into the cavern at once.

The red gnolls reacted differently from the brown ones we'd faced before.

"They're grouping up...?"

Joo Ha-yeon sounded puzzled. The red gnolls weren't just a bit stronger physically than the brown ones — they used rudimentary tactics. Nothing sophisticated: two or three clustering together to pin down one person at a time. Easy enough to read. But it was a far cry from the brown gnolls, who'd just charged in a mindless rush.

"Don't let your guard down! Seoyun, step forward a bit!"

Na Seoyun could handle these just fine. I adjusted the distance between her and the rear line so the gnolls wouldn't all pile onto one target at once.

Grrrk, grrrk, grrrk!

The moment Na Seoyun peeled slightly away from the group, the red gnolls scattered with a chorus of barks and came charging in.

Five.

I was the only one who'd ended up facing five of them. Aggro management had nothing to do with it — they'd thrown themselves at me of their own accord. Three on Na Seoyun. Seven on Nam Eun-ju — or more precisely, split into groups of three and four, going after Eun-ju and the rear line respectively.

I immediately pulled a spare weapon from my inventory and hurled it at the red gnolls heading for Nam Eun-ju.

A wet crunch. A yelp. The weapon struck true, and one red gnoll died where it stood.

The remaining two hesitated. In that window, Nam Eun-ju slotted herself between those two and the four charging the rear.

I cut down one of the gnolls coming at me. A shriek. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠opened its belly, and red blood and viscera sprayed across the stone.

A familiar sight. I didn't bother dodging the blood that splattered over me. Once the monster corpses vanished with time, the stains would vanish with them.

Dropping one in a single stroke made the others falter. They'd realized our strength was beyond what they'd expected. Na Seoyun had already put down one of her attackers and was slipping out of the gnolls' encirclement with ease.

I glanced over at Nam Eun-ju's fight. Thanks to me, she was down from seven gnolls to six. She'd even intercepted the ones charging the rear, and now she was fully surrounded.

"Eun-ju! Shield of Earth!"

A dull thud. Nam Eun-ju shoved a charging gnoll back with her shield and immediately felt the Solid Shield of Earth wrap around her body.

"Hyaaah!"

She abandoned part of her defense and lunged at one of the gnolls — the one farthest from the rear line. She took its attack at an angle, slashed its thigh, then spun halfway around and smashed her shield down on the wound. Thanks to the Solid Shield of Earth, the wooden club that glanced off her shoulder did no damage at all.

As the gnoll she'd hammered consecutively collapsed, she turned naturally, bringing the rear line into view, and shouted.

A roar tore out of one of the red gnolls — almost like a lion's, coming from something of the dog family — and it came barreling toward her. The one closest to the rear. The moment its behavior turned strange, Nam Eun-ju hadn't hesitated. She'd used Powerful Taunt.

She calmly batted the gnoll away as it charged like a rabid son of a bitch, putting real force behind it, aiming for spots that would rattle the brain — the brow, the temple. Even a gnoll gone berserk couldn't control its body properly once its brain took a hit. That was what she was counting on. At the same time, she slipped the clubs and snapping jaws of the others by a hair, calmly weaving defense and offense together.

Then came Na-yeon's support.

"Sylph! Wind Cutter!"

Casa's Fireball — a blob of flame, more accurately — dealt splash damage to everything nearby, so Na-yeon had recently started using Sylph's Wind Cutter when supporting around allies. The damage was lower, but it was safer for the people around it, and just stripping the enemies of their mobility was enough. Nam Eun-ju, who'd been coming into her own lately, could buy all the time they needed.

Another gnoll's leg went down. The moment Na-yeon's attack pulled aggro, Nam Eun-ju shouted again.

She yanked an old weapon from her inventory, hurled it at another gnoll, then closed on the ones nearest the rear and pulled the aggro back onto herself. Natural aggro management. I nodded as I watched.

Even while keeping an eye on the fight, I cut down the gnolls coming at me one by one. I didn't have a shield at the moment, so I was fighting them the way an evasion tank would. Thanks to my physical stats and experience, I never lost a single one — even though evasion-tanking made aggro control a pain.

While I took my time with them, half my attention elsewhere, Na Seoyun had already finished off all four of hers.

Her growth isn't anything to sneeze at, either.

I'd been fighting at a leisurely pace, sure, but she'd still cleaned up faster than I had. And then she was already sprinting toward Nam Eun-ju.

"Eun-ju unnie!"

Nam Eun-ju didn't answer. Five gnolls with their mobility already broken were clustered around her, and she was in the middle of finishing the last one.

I put down my final gnoll and looked toward the rear. I didn't need to go. And that assessment proved right.

Na Seoyun arrived and split open ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the back of the gnoll Nam Eun-ju had been fighting. The rest was just mopping up stragglers.

Once the fight was over, I turned to the party.

"Well done. The monsters got stronger, and you still made it look clean."

The one who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lit up most at my praise wasn't Na Seoyun — it was Nam Eun-ju.

"Th-thank you!"

"No, I mean it. You did well. Same as the last floor — your instincts as a Keeper have come a long way. You didn't let a single one through this time, either."

"That's because Na-yeon unnie and Ha-yeon unnie supported me so hard. If anything, the support line was doing more than the vanguard..."

"That was the right call. The vanguard wasn't in much danger. And even if it had been, I'm the one who told you to prioritize the rear over the front."

Na-yeon and Joo Ha-yeon nodded. Nam Eun-ju looked a little embarrassed. Na Seoyun, who knew how hard Eun-ju had been working, offered her congratulations as well.

...Is my praise really something to celebrate?

I found it a little odd, honestly. But they all looked happy, so I left it alone.

The corpses vanished. We gathered the food that dropped and a few of the red gnoll hides, then checked the passage numbers. I turned to the party.

"We're taking Zone 1-1 first again."

"Of course."

The women agreed with feeling. They clearly had no desire to relive the stress of the 11th floor.

With the party's consent, I started moving toward Zone 1-1.

From the 13th floor onward, the goblins had been replaced by their higher species: Hobgoblins. A Hobgoblin commanding Goblin Lords was only slightly weaker than a Goblin Lord itself, but as a higher species, it directed them. There were no Goblin Warriors at all. The Goblin Lords took the vanguard, and the rear was packed with archers and shamans. The goblin pack numbered over thirty.

This time, Na Seoyun and I punched through to wipe out the ranged attackers, while Nam Eun-ju perfectly sealed off both the Goblin Lords' strikes at our rear and the archers' shots.

A day passed like that. By the second day, we leveled up for the first time in a while — and we claimed the 13th floor's Fixed Safe Zone.

I set the conditions the same as before and registered myself as administrator.

The first Zone Administrator of three floors.

A small swell of pride hit me. The future was changing.