Blue Sea Party

The return to the Fixed Safe Zone went without any real trouble.

Two of our new companions stared in stunned disbelief as our party tore through the Minotaur Phantoms, but their astonishment neither sped the hunt nor slowed it. The rest of the group seemed to take a quiet pride in those wide-eyed looks. Pride in one's party was a healthy thing — privately, I almost wanted to tell the two of them to gape a little harder.

Han Ba-da stirred once on the way back, then slipped under again.

I had to reassure a frantic Cho Yeon-eun more than once that nothing was wrong with her. The wounds had closed, but the injuries had been severe enough that she wasn't going to snap awake on the spot. She hadn't gotten a proper rest to begin with.

We couldn't just leave her lying around during the fighting, either. We were cutting through the Phantoms at an absurd pace, but dropping our guard and parking Han Ba-da somewhere random was asking for disaster. I'd worried about the same thing on the previous floors — if a Phantom from another chamber came charging through a connecting passage, she could get trampled to death.

A day later, we reached the Fixed Safe Zone. We'd taken the shortest route, and Na-yeon's improved stats had shaved a little more time off the trip.

Once we arrived, I set Han Ba-da's party as an exception the same way I'd done for ours, so they could rest without being ejected.

Han Ba-da woke not long after we got there. I'd been pouring heals into her without worrying about mana now that we were inside a Safe Zone, and that seemed to have done the trick. The rest of us had been resting as well, so when she came to, both parties were already gathered.

"How…?"

The moment she recognized where she was, her face went blank with disbelief. She remembered the instant before she blacked out with perfect clarity — the fact that they were alive at all, and that she was now inside a Fixed Safe Zone, demanded an explanation. Cho Yeon-eun answered her faithfully.

"After you went down, Bada… a few hours had already passed. We were half resigned to it, waiting for a Minotaur that could come out at any second… and then Yoo Shin-hoo's party found us."

"…How did they even know where we were?"

"Once they reached the fifteenth floor, they realized our strength and our matchup weren't going to be enough to beat the Minotaurs, so they started searching. That's why we're still alive."

"…We're in your debt. No — we owe you a debt of gratitude."

"That's why they said they'd help us for a while. They even set it up so we can stay here, unlike the other floors…"

"…Here?"

"This is a Fixed Safe Zone. They said the one on the fifteenth floor isn't in sector 1-1."

"…Hah…"

Nothing, from start to finish, had gone the way it was supposed to. Han Ba-da let out a long breath and kept going.

"What about Jin Sang-soo's group?"

The question came out of nowhere. Cho Yeon-eun went silent.

"They ran," Lee Yoon-hyung said, answering in her place. "They're probably still alive."

"…The smoke bombs…"

If you tried to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cross a chamber without fighting, the Minotaur would come after you from behind. They must have used those smoke bombs to hide their position and punch through the chambers without ever engaging. A dungeon reward, I supposed. The effect was better than I'd expected.

Han Ba-da sat lost in thought for a while. Then, as if she'd only just remembered her manners, she turned to me and my party and offered her thanks.

"…I should have said this sooner. Thank you for saving us. We owe you our lives."

"Don't mention it. We had the room to help, that's all. Honestly, the fact that you even went to the fifteenth floor had something to do with us, so I'd been wondering what we'd do if we were too late. I'm just glad we weren't."

"…Thank you. Truly."

I kept it modest, and Han Ba-da looked faintly surprised even as she bowed her head again.

Did she think I was going to act all high and mighty? I thought we'd cleared up the misunderstandings on the fourteenth floor, but I guess a few preconceptions are still hanging on.

"How are you feeling?"

"…Thanks to your care, I'm fine. I heard you were a priest."

"Well… think of me as something like a paladin. I do have heals, but they're not very efficient. My real job is still warrior."

"…That's… impressive."

She seemed startled that I could cover two class roles at once. It wouldn't last. Sooner or later she'd learn just how half-baked that kind of split really was.

Except for me and Na Seoyun, of course.

Once she realized my abilities were far beyond anything she'd imagined — and that I was nothing like the person she'd taken me for — Han Ba-da seemed to sink into a quiet self-reproach.

The man she'd written off as garbage had turned out to be decent, and capable on top of it. Meanwhile she had shoved ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her party into a deathtrap out of sheer stubbornness, gotten betrayed by another group, and come within a breath of dying. She had every reason to feel sick about it.

"…I was told you'd be helping us for a while."

"That's right. The way things stand, you wouldn't last long here on your own. And as it is, there's no way back down to the lower floors either."

"…I made a serious mistake. I have no right to ask this, but… I'd like to accept your help. I will repay this debt."

The price of putting too much faith in a Hidden Class and her own growth rate.

I nodded. This was what I'd intended to do anyway, and it would benefit me as well. There was no reason to refuse.

"We start hunting tomorrow. Will you be all right?"

"I'll be fine. I want to join as soon as possible. If I could, I'd start today."

"Today is a rest day. You can join the hunt starting tomorrow. We'll share food and give you a place to sleep, but we won't be splitting any of the drops."

"Of course. I don't have the gall to ask for more than this."

Han Ba-da bowed her head again, insisting that this alone was already more than she could repay. I waved it off as if the excessive courtesy made me uncomfortable.

"Then rest well today. I'll let you know when we leave tomorrow."

There was nothing else to say.

A one-sided favor. That was all this was, for now. Given her personality, even this much would make it hard for her to refuse me later — and if whatever I asked happened to line up with her own nature, all the better.

I just had to give her work I didn't want to do and she would enjoy. Help her grow through the twentieth floor, then send her back to the eleventh to manage the Labyrinth, and she'd probably thank me for it. If she wanted to stick her nose into other people's problems that badly, I might as well let her. It served my purposes, fit her convictions, and took a chore off my hands. Three birds, one stone.

I left Han Ba-da's party and went looking for Nam Eun-ju.

She came over with a puzzled look when I called.

"Did you need something?"

"We picked up an item when we rescued Han Ba-da's party. I think it'll be useful for you."

"…Pardon?"

I pressed the Lower Body Cleaner into her hands and made her check the information. Nam Eun-ju looked immediately uncomfortable.

"I appreciate it, really, but… wouldn't something like this be better used by Ha-yeon unnie or Na-yeon unnie? I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it, but still…"

If giving it to anyone else in the party would have done any good, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But according to my Information Level and the Administrator's Eye, it would have been completely pointless for the others. That was the only reason it was going to her.

My own potential was still High. Na Seoyun's was Supreme. I doubted even a top-grade version of this thing would do either of us any good. I'd already finished cleansing my body thanks to the elixirs, and by the time Seoyun could get her hands on something like this, she'd have finished the job on her own.

Nam Eun-ju's potential wasn't Lowest, so I wasn't sure it would actually raise the potential itself… but it had two uses, so it wouldn't be meaningless. She was in the middle of a growth spurt besides. If it helped, fine. It wasn't going to hurt her.

And who else was our party supposed to use something like this on? The talent we'd be recruiting from here on out wouldn't be people with Nam Eun-ju's kind of limited potential. For all those reasons, this item was made for her.

I could feel Han Ba-da's gaze from a distance, locked on the Lower Body Cleaner in my hand. Cho Yeon-eun was telling her that she'd been the one to hand it over, and that it hadn't been an important item for them anyway. The words had the shape of comfort — don't worry about it. I had no idea what Han Ba-da was thinking. Maybe she was blaming herself for all of it.

I pushed her out of my mind and focused on Nam Eun-ju again.

"You've been growing at an extraordinary rate lately. You've felt it yourself, haven't you?"

She flinched.

Nam Eun-ju didn't deny it. But she also knew that even so, she still couldn't hold a candle to me or Na Seoyun.

"I don't enjoy saying this. But… given your number of skill slots, and the growth you've shown so far, it would be a serious problem if this streak broke now."

Skill slots. The growth she'd demonstrated until now. Nam Eun-ju understood what I was getting at immediately. Talent. That was what I meant.

Nam Eun-ju… didn't have enough of it.

I had known that from the start. She had learned it slowly, the hard way, as she climbed the Tower. Which made her current growth all the more critical. Missing this window would be a mistake. She probably knew that too — which was why, standing in front of me, she had admitted she wanted the item. Something she would never have said out loud under ordinary circumstances, not even as empty courtesy.

"…Yes."

"I'm not planning to cast you aside just because your talent is lacking. But I also can't pour resources into you that should be going to me and Seoyun just so we can keep traveling together. I trust you understand why."

You never knew what kind of danger the Tower would throw at you. I couldn't dump every resource we had into Nam Eun-ju just to even out the party's strength. Fairness was the least of it. No matter how much I invested in her at her current level, she wouldn't even reach Na Seoyun's heels. The more I poured in, the wider the gap would grow. Water into a cracked jar. Except in special cases like this one, there was almost nothing I could usefully give her.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"This is an extremely important period for you. If you can hold onto this growth, you'll be able to keep fighting as a combatant for a lot longer. But if it breaks now… I'll say it again: I won't abandon you. You just won't be able to stay with us as a fighter. So please. When something is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠being given to you, take it. Don't refuse."

"……Yes. Th-thank you. I'll put it to good use."

I nodded, looking at her with open satisfaction.

Nam Eun-ju's expression was a mess of competing feelings. Overwhelmed. Grateful. Guilty, too, because she was the only one receiving something the rest of the party hadn't gotten. All of it tangled together on her face.

"This item can be used twice. Use both charges yourself. The description already says the effect is weak — there's no point splitting it."

"Yes. But… you said all of that with such a serious face that I listened, only… does this actually have anything to do with my growth? If it just removes waste, isn't this more like… a skincare thing?"

Huh?

Something felt off. I pulled up the Cleaner's information window.

…Thinking about it, the additional information below the usage count was only visible to me.

Which meant that if you only read the description at the top, this was a health-maintenance item. Early trainees who barely had a concept of internal bodily waste might not even understand what it was talking about.

Come to think of it, Cho Yeon-eun had only said the effect was small but that it would definitely help. She hadn't said what it was actually for.

…This situation was getting weird. Now that I'd realized it, the whole scene looked completely different.

I had suddenly called over Nam Eun-ju, who had been growing well lately, forced a supposed skincare product on her, and launched into a speech about her growth rate. No wonder she'd looked so confused.

And that was why she'd told me to give it to Na-yeon or Joo Ha-yeon first…

She's a little younger, so she wanted me to take care of the two older girls first? Is that what that was?

I'd gone out of my way to hand her a hard-to-find item, and she'd taken it as a beauty treatment. I mean, I understood that kind of thing mattered to women, but…

Oh, for fuck's sake.

I'd set the whole mood so carefully. And this was how it landed.

I was speechless.