Blue Sea Party
Damn that Epathos.
Of all the things that could have lodged themselves in my head, it had to be his words. That his advice had actually helped was obvious just from looking at Nam Eun-ju and Joo Ha-yeon. I was genuinely grateful for that. But those last words of his refused to leave me alone.
S... ugh. Is this really the only excuse I've got?
I couldn't come up with a single other one. Drawing a line after we'd been getting along just fine. I needed an excuse that wouldn't crack their trust — something with the smallest possible fallout, something I could actually sell...
"Uh, h-hmm. W-well, you see..."
My expression was painfully awkward, and my speech had taken a sudden, clumsy turn. Joo Ha-yeon looked at me with even deeper suspicion.
"What is it?"
"W-well, ah... it's actually pretty embarrassing... it's not a big reason... and I've already taken care of it, so..."
"...Since it's come to this, I want to know. If it isn't a big reason, couldn't you tell me? I still trust you, Shin-hoo, but I'd like to have certainty as well. Could you give me a little more of your trust?"
Joo Ha-yeon's expression was earnest. I couldn't wipe the hesitation from my face. As hers gradually clouded over, I finally opened my mouth, resigning myself to the damage this would do to my image.
"...Well, you see."
"Yes."
"I, uh, had a dream..."
"...Pardon?"
"A dream. A dream."
"Yes."
Joo Ha-yeon looked puzzled. I opened my mouth as if I really, truly did not want to say this.
"In the, uh, dream... our party members showed up?"
"............Pardon?"
For a moment she didn't seem to understand. Then her expression began to shift. Puzzlement, something subtle, a look of dawning comprehension mixed with a half-smile — and then a faint flush colored her cheeks.
"Ah, a wet dre—"
"N-no. I didn't do anything. They just... appeared in the dream, and, well..."
Joo Ha-yeon finally looked like she understood.
"Ah... so that's... that's why... well, if that's the reason, it would certainly make things awkward..."
I spoke with an expression of half-resignation.
"They appeared in the dream, but I didn't do anything. That's the truth. So I asked Lord Epathos if there was some kind of method, and he said I could suppress it using mana."
"...Pardon?"
"Sexual desire. Libido."
If I'd looked in a mirror right then, I probably would have seen the face of a man who'd achieved enlightenment. What the hell was I doing. My image...
For the record, this was actually true. You can suppress sexual desire by circulating mana. Circulate it a certain way and it works. It isn't even that hard, and I already knew how. I even used it occasionally.
Applied correctly, it can even help with premature ejaculation. During actual intercourse it's difficult unless you have considerable mana control, since you're in an aroused state — but it isn't entirely impossible. Outside of that, it isn't hard.
"...Does that have any side effects?"
"...Not none, but nothing serious."
Just that if you used it too long, you ended up with erectile dysfunction for a while? It recovered with time, so it was no big deal.
"If you, um, hold it in, your body..."
Joo Ha-yeon closed her mouth mid-sentence. We were trapped in the Tower — what was she going to suggest? She seemed to realize there was no good answer.
"...Would you like me to make sure you have some time alone?"
"That won't be necessary."
"Sexual desire isn't something to be ashamed of. It's natural. Even wet dreams..."
"No, that's not it. Nothing happened, I'm telling you."
"You don't need to be embarrassed. If it's really that hard, I could..."
Joo Ha-yeon clapped a hand over her mouth mid-sentence. Then her face began to flush red.
"Ah, no, just now I..."
"...Pardon? What did you say? I didn't quite catch that..."
I decided to pretend I hadn't heard. If I got into that kind of relationship with Joo Ha-yeon here, things would get awkward with the rest of the party — especially the Na sisters.
"I-if you didn't hear it, that's fine. It wasn't anything important. R-right. If that's the reason, I can understand. I understand completely."
"...Is there anyone else in the party still holding a grudge over how I acted?"
"No. Na-yeon thinks you acted that way because of what she did before, so she figures she just needs to show you she's changed. Eun-ju's skills have improved lately, so her anxiety seems to have eased a bit. Seo-yoon... seems fine. Actually, I'm not sure. But she knows how talented she is, so she doesn't seem particularly anxious."
"...Please keep this a secret from the rest of the party."
"Of course. Especially Seo-yoon... she's still a minor."
Right. That's true. Damn it.
"Ahem. Still, thank you for telling me. It must have been really hard to say..."
That's rich, coming from the person who pressed me for it.
"...It wasn't."
"Still, it turns out you really are human, Shin-hoo. Honestly, I feel closer to you now."
"...I am a person, you know."
"But the Shin-hoo I've seen has just been superhuman. We weren't together on the first floor, but from what Na-yeon and Seo-yoon told me, you took out more than half the goblins by yourself and saved people. On the second floor you kept us alive with nothing but your wits. On the third you performed like a superhuman all on your own, without even a status window. On the fourth you stayed behind to the very end, wrecking your own body to keep the party alive... Every single thing you've shown us since then hasn't looked like the work of an ordinary person. It looked like something special."
Joo Ha-yeon smiled as she went on.
"Hearing something like this makes you feel closer, though. I think it would be nice if we talked like this now and then."
"...Is that so."
In a way, it seemed like a good opportunity. Knowing this human side of me meant growing closer — growing attached. Didn't they say attachment was a terrifying thing? The price was just too steep, that was all.
When I looked a little deflated, Joo Ha-yeon laughed and said even that was cute. If we'd been any closer, she looked ready to pat me on the head. I shook my head and spoke.
"I think we've talked enough. Our goal is the fourteenth floor. We'll raise our levels and stats there."
"Yes, Shin-hoo. I'll let the others know."
"I'd appreciate that."
Joo Ha-yeon gave me a light bow and left.
...One mistake sure had a long shelf life. I'd ended up torching my image too. I'd asked her to keep it secret, but they say friendship between women means sharing everything, and they were that close. I didn't rate the odds of this staying buried very high. Maybe not right away — but someday, it would come out.
Damn it.
I shook my head and got some rest. During the meal I could feel Joo Ha-yeon's peculiar gaze, but I simply ignored it.
The next day I started hunting with a vengeance. I went a little more wild than usual. Maybe that was why, in a single day, we found the passage leading to the next floor.
Thinking this floor had gone strangely fast, we moved up to the fourteenth and did the same thing — secured the Fixed Safe Zone and threw ourselves into the hunt.
My prediction hit the mark. Nam Eun-ju's skill and stats grew at a rapid clip. It was a pace that didn't match her potential. Faster than Mid, even. Setting mana aside, she was growing faster than Joo Ha-yeon, whose potential was Mid-High.
Just how desperate was she? I'd shown her the right path, but actually walking it was another matter entirely... They say the will to survive is greater than most talent, and she was living proof. Before long, all three of her physical stats — mana excluded — began breaking past twenty.
Through steady hunting, the party's level had reached thirteen, and I was closing in on fourteen. Looking at the rate of diminishing returns, it was about time to head for the next floor. The fifteenth was a mid-boss floor, so it would be a bit trickier. And that temple was there as well.
The Temple of Tribulation.
The temple that stood on the fifteenth floor was a far more extraordinary place than anyone would imagine. Even if my talent had only been Mid or Low, so long as I had regressed, I was certain I could have grown close to a Ranker even if I never quite became one. The reason I could be so sure was this temple.
The 2nd Fist King.
The second to bear that title had been born from this temple. He had beaten the first to death — a man said to have been approaching Ranker status — and stolen the name. After finishing his training here, the 2nd Fist King tore through the Lower Floors and the Middle Floor in a single rush, a monster who caught up to the front lines of that era in an instant.
Even so, he never quite reached Ranker. In the end, he died at another Ranker's hands.
The problem was that the Temple of Tribulation simply took too long. The 2nd Fist King had trained here for about ten years. In that much time you would have almost reached the Upper Floors of the Tower, which meant you couldn't claim most of the rewards first. That was why I had no choice but to pass it by, and that was what stung. If I could have used this temple for even a few months later on, once I'd hit the ceiling of my growth, I was confident I could have become a Ranker in the shortest time possible.
But the moment you reached the twenty-first floor, the Labyrinth became a place you could never return to. From the twenty-first onward you could go back to previous floors easily enough — but the first through the twentieth were the exception. After the Fist King, people who understood just how extraordinary the Temple of Tribulation was had all searched for a way back before the twentieth floor. None of them ever found one.
When we finished the day's fighting and headed for the Fixed Safe Zone, Jin Sang-soo's group arrived at the thirteenth-floor Fixed Safe Zone.
Lately, parties had been trickling into the eleventh-floor Fixed Safe Zone one by one. The top-tier climbers were starting to catch up. At some point the mid-tier would start pouring into the Labyrinth in droves. Besides our party and Jin Sang-soo's, there wasn't even anyone who'd reached the twelfth-floor Fixed Safe Zone. Setting our party aside, they were definitely quite capable.
When I told the others, they looked puzzled.
"I thought we were the exceptionally strong ones."
That was right. Epathos had said the same.
"Looking at the fighting on the eighth floor, or at other people, we're clearly ahead... but they're already on the thirteenth..."
Joo Ha-yeon trailed off, and Na-yeon picked up the thread.
"The world really is a big place. Is there another person like Shin-hoo out there?"
There wasn't. Later, maybe — but right now, even the Rankers weren't as strong as I was.
Even Na Seoyun, who'd received my full support, was only just looking at the late thirties in mana thanks to her overwhelming talent and unique trait, while her physical stats were still loafing around in the early thirties. She just lacked levels. Na-yeon, with her high-grade talent, had only just hit thirty in mana, and the rest of her physical stats were still in the teens.
It was a textbook example of how terrifying Supreme-grade talent really was — and of just how far outside the standard my own stats currently sat. A Ranker without someone like me to guide them would never be a match for me. Hell, they wouldn't even be a match for Na Seoyun.
Joo Ha-yeon shook her head at Na-yeon's words.
"I don't know about that... but it seems like they're just trying to climb floors quickly rather than hunt."
"...Why?"
"...We might be the objective."
She added that she didn't know whether that was in a good way or a bad way. At her words, the party's expressions turned grave.
"Well, it's only a guess. I don't even know why they would."
"...It might be because of the Safe Zones," I put in, just in case.
"The Safe Zones?"
"If they've gotten their hands on other Safe Zones, they'd know how much power the administrator rights carry. That could be what they're after."
Honestly, I thought that was the more likely possibility. Jin Sang-soo. The bastard who'd once been the boss of the Blue Sea Cartel, the predecessor of the Blue Sea Guild. My first-timeline experience made me suspicious.
Had he realized that potential and come running to claim it early? The fifteenth floor was a mid-boss zone, so there was no Fixed Safe Zone in area 1-1 — but they wouldn't know that.
At my speculation, the party had gone past worry and into anger.
"If they lay a hand on oppa, I won't let them get away with it."
"I dunno. Would they really pick a fight with us? They'd probably just go to the next floor and try to claim it first..."
"You never know, though."
"That's right. Shin-hoo, don't let your guard down. If they come looking for us, stay in the back."
"...I'm the vanguard, though?"
"Even so. You never know."
"I agree. I think that would be best, Shin-hoo."
"I've grown a little too. I can stand on the front line for you, Party Leader."
They were all worried, but I honestly wasn't. If that really was their goal, we'd win for certain even against seven of them. There was a high chance none of them could even use magic to begin with, and our skill would be far superior besides. Still, it didn't sit well that the first ones to catch up from the start were trash like that.
I figured I should reach the twentieth floor quickly and build a worthwhile network while looping the floors below. Recruitment could wait until then.
Joo Ha-yeon's prediction hit the mark. Jin Sang-soo's group. Instead of leveling up or raising their stats to grow stronger, they were racing up through the Labyrinth.
We'd reached level fourteen and were clearing caverns to secure the passage to the fifteenth floor when we ran into them.
Jin Sang-soo's party. No — the Blue Sea Party.
That was how she introduced them. Said they were the Blue Sea Party. Then she asked us:
"Are you Yoo Shin-hoo's party?"
"...We are, yes?"
The moment another party appeared, my companions went on guard and shoved me to the rear. Then Joo Ha-yeon stepped forward in my place.
A fierce shout. A woman yelled it at our party — or more precisely, at me, the only man in it.
She was the leader of the Blue Sea Party, Han Ba-da.