Blue Sea Party

I had to explain that the impurities in question were not that kind of waste. The source of the information, as always, was the ninth-floor dungeon. A conveniently unimpeachable excuse.

Only then did Nam Eun-ju actually understand what I'd meant. Her face went scarlet, and she scrambled to offer a proper thank-you.

I waved her off with a weary flick of my hand, and she fled the scene at speed.

Back among the other women, Nam Eun-ju showed them the Cleaner and explained the situation, and the party offered their congratulations.

Following my instructions, she used the Cleaner twice in succession and succeeded in burning off a portion of the impurities.

When I checked through the Administrator's Eye, her potential had risen a notch.

A single use hadn't been enough, but two applications seemed to have done the trick. It probably helped that her growth rate had always been impressive for someone graded Low.

If she'd used all five charges, her potential might even have reached Low-Mid. Ordinarily, a Low-grade talent would need all five uses just to hit Low-Upper — but Nam Eun-ju's current stats and actual skill were already wildly out of proportion with her potential rating.

That, I figured, was the price of how hard she'd worked coming due.

The whole episode had been absurd, but we rested better than I'd expected. Our condition recovered properly, and the next day we headed out to hunt together without incident.

Until then, a thin wall had stood between Han Ba-da's party and mine. Joo Ha-yeon and Han Ba-da had clashed on the fourteenth floor, but from the midpoint onward they'd shown each other a measure of respect, and Na-yeon seemed to have taken a quiet liking to Han Ba-da's sense of justice — she didn't dislike her, at any rate. Still, given what those people had been through, closing the distance wasn't easy.

That distance lasted all of five minutes. The moment Han Ba-da watched our party hunt, her soul left her body.

"Good god. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Those are Minotaurs..."

"Impressive, right? I nearly jumped out of my skin myself a couple of days ago."

Cho Yeon-eun was wearing a wry smile, as if even now she couldn't quite get used to the sight.

As the same hunt repeated itself and they found themselves with nothing to do, their expressions turned hollow. Even as we hunted, I followed through on what I'd said before: I put Nam Eun-ju in a one-on-one against a Phantom of the Single-Horned Minotaur.

I started by instructing Joo Ha-yeon not to hesitate — if things got dangerous, she was to throw up a shield immediately.

"This is for the experience. It'll be hard, but I want you to try. If it gets dangerous, I'm here, and so is Miss Joo Ha-yeon's shield. Don't worry."

"...Do I really have to do this?"

"Yes. You do."

Nam Eun-ju's skill had been improving by leaps and bounds, but on the fifteenth floor she'd started to stall. By any ordinary measure her current level was still remarkable, but she almost never actually joined combat here — all tension, no results.

Which was exactly why she had to do this. Her potential had just gone up. This was the moment.

I took the hesitant Nam Eun-ju by the lead and marched her out in front of a Phantom of the Single-Horned Minotaur.

"MROOOOOH!"

She flinched.

Nam Eun-ju stared at the four-meter monster with trembling eyes.

"C-can I actually win this?"

Honestly, it would be hard — but holding out was well within her means. Her physical stats currently averaged over twenty. Her potential was Low — Low-Upper now — and even so, those numbers were almost unbelievable.

On top of that, her class was Warrior, and she had shield techniques besides. Double the class correction. And if things went south, Joo Ha-yeon's Shield of Earth would come into play. There was no reason she couldn't do this.

"You can."

At my firm answer, Nam Eun-ju planted herself in front of the Minotaur, eyes still shaking, and settled into her stance.

The ground drummed. A charge, as if the beast had been waiting for this.

It wasn't running on all fours, but a Minotaur barreling forward on two legs was terrifying enough. If anything, the sheer wall of mass coming at you made it worse.

"MROOOOOOH!"

"Hyaaaaah!"

Nam Eun-ju loosed a clear, ringing shout and stepped in to meet the charge.

"Sh-she's taking it head-on?!"

Han Ba-da gasped in horror.

You don't take a charge head-on. Even Han Ba-da, whose physical abilities outstripped Nam Eun-ju's, couldn't have managed that.

But Nam Eun-ju wasn't a fool. Even with equal stats, the momentum of a charge would bowl you over if you planted your feet and tried to hold.

As the charging Minotaur swung a kick like it was punting a soccer ball, Nam Eun-ju slipped aside at an angle and drove in toward the opposite leg.

"Hyaaah!"

The impact boomed loud enough to rattle the air — but the Minotaur didn't so much as budge. It spun immediately and drove a fist down at her.

She raised her shield from a planted stance and caught the blow. The mana-infused shield absorbed the Minotaur's attack without issue, and by angling the shock away she kept her footing intact.

Seasoned movement. You'd never guess she had the lowest potential in the party.

What followed was a grinding, tedious fight. Nam Eun-ju lacked a finishing blow, and the Minotaur couldn't easily break a defender that stubborn.

Enraged by an opponent who refused to go down, the Minotaur bellowed and hammered her with fists and kicks. Nam Eun-ju blocked them all, calm and measured. Then, gradually, the Minotaur's gaze began to drift.

I drew up a thread of mana, just in case the aggro slipped. She might freeze if the taunt's effect unnerved her. Unnecessary worry, as it turned out.

The moment Nam Eun-ju noticed the Minotaur's eyes starting to wander, she used her skill without a second's hesitation.

"MROOOOOOH!"

The drifting gaze locked onto her at once, and the attacks that followed were even more indiscriminate than before. Strikes that abandoned defense entirely. Nam Eun-ju struggled to hold — but every opening that appeared, she drove her weapon into without pause.

A fight that stretched across dozens of minutes.

Then a heavy thud.

There was only one winner. Nam Eun-ju was still standing. The Phantom of the Minotaur, its body riddled like a honeycomb, slowly crumbled apart.

"Hah... hah..."

"See? I told you you'd win."

I honestly hadn't expected her to win on the first try.

"An... an achievement. I got an achievement."

"...What?"

"I-it says I defeated a Minotaur alone... an achievement..."

"...What's the reward?"

"S-skill slot expansion. I gained one."

You're kidding.

I checked immediately. She really had gained a skill slot. One empty slot added. Hers were now four.

Even if the Tower rewards those who put in the effort... a payout for killing a single Minotaur? A Single-Horned Phantom, at that? And skill slot expansion? Is this thing out of its mind?

Still, I wasn't complaining. The reward was enormous relative to the feat, but it meant my party member was getting stronger. And even with one extra slot, Nam Eun-ju only had four. That was still far behind the rest of the party.

Which was precisely the point: someone of Nam Eun-ju's potential shouldn't have been able to solo a Minotaur Phantom at this stage. Han Ba-da's party had nearly died to one — granted, they'd been exhausted and betrayed on top of it — but still. If Na Seoyun or I beat a hundred Minotaurs by ourselves, the Tower wouldn't hand us a reward like that.

Nam Eun-ju wasn't wearing Legendary-grade gear. Ordinary equipment, ordinary skills. The only Rare skill she had was the taunt. She hadn't even received Joo Ha-yeon's shield. She'd won on ability she'd built with her own two hands. That was why the Tower had paid out.

So this is how it works?

I felt like I'd just witnessed something genuinely rare. Actually watching someone earn an achievement was uncommon enough as it was.

Han Ba-da's party wore expressions of utter disbelief.

"This party is... nothing but monsters."

They looked hollowed out.

Technically the only monster was Na Seoyun. Unless they were counting me too.

After that, I had Nam Eun-ju face Minotaurs one-on-one at intervals so her growth wouldn't stall, and through steady hunting we started to find our rhythm with Han Ba-da's party as well.

Then I felt it. The time had come.

"We're going to start a drive hunt."

"Eek!"

"N-no!"

Nam Eun-ju made a terrified noise. Na-yeon voiced her opposition outright.

"Why? We can handle it now."

"A-a pack of Minotaurs?! We can't beat that!"

"Sh-she's right, Shin-hoo. It's too dangerous."

But without a method like this, I had no idea when we'd ever finish collecting those bizarre iron fragments. We needed hundreds of them. Other parties had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already begun arriving at the twelfth-floor Fixed Safe Zone — I'd received the message. The sooner we moved to the next floor, the better.

"It's entirely possible. Have I ever asked you to do something we couldn't? Have I?"

I said it calmly to Na-yeon and Joo Ha-yeon. Both of them wore expressions that conceded the point. They kept insisting it was a bad idea anyway.

"...A drive hunt. Against Minotaurs?"

Han Ba-da asked it like the words themselves didn't make sense.

"We did it on the lower floors, actually. And we'll start with two or three at a time. Don't worry. I can handle that many on my own."

My tone left no room for argument, and Han Ba-da had nothing to say. Her voice in this group carried the least weight, after all.

"You'll want to grow as fast as possible, won't you?"

A single line, applied with just enough pressure to the already-uncomfortable Han Ba-da. In the end, she raised no further objection.

Everyone except Na Seoyun was against it. But my word carried the most weight, so the drive hunt was going to happen whether they liked it or not.

On other floors, the individual monsters weren't that strong, so even if the numbers crept up you could still manage. And if you used the corridors, there was a hard limit on how many you could fight at once — after that, it was a war of stamina. Convenient for raising endurance, actually.

Minotaurs were different. Each one was a powerful monster in its own right. When they bunched up, the result was in a completely different league from a pack of goblins or gnolls.

That was what had the party so frightened.

The first two or three were nothing.

"See? It works."

I lured Minotaurs in twos, then threes, letting the party ease into it. Around the time they were adapting — still anxious, but adapting — I started picking up the pace.

"Shin-hoo! Shin-hoo, this is way too many! Just a little less this time...!"

Five. Six. Eight.

"They're insane! This whole party is insane!"

Someone from Han Ba-da's party shouted it. A man's voice — Lee Yoon-hyung, by the sound of it.

The level cap you could reach off the fifteenth-floor Minotaurs was 17. That matched the limit on the seventeenth floor itself — a sign that the fifteenth was a special zone.

I intended to hit level 17 here.

And then...

We go straight to the twentieth floor.

If we raised our levels to 17 here and grew our stats, operating on the twentieth floor wouldn't be impossible. The only Minotaur there was the boss; the rest were goblins and gnolls, which meant growth would actually be faster. I planned to secure the Fixed Safe Zones on floors sixteen through nineteen and skip the rest.

There was no reason to drag this out. I needed the Labyrinth under my administration as soon as possible.

Even now, people with irreplaceable talent might be dying.

I couldn't allow that.