A Predestined Farewell
"We've arrived."
The 12th Floor. While I was in the middle of handling administrative work, the women of the party who'd abandoned me to raise Ha Yoo-jin came looking for me.
More precisely, they'd been taking turns helping me one at a time. Today I'd been working with Nam Eun-ju, so it was the other three women and Ha Yoo-jin who'd shown up.
They said only the last remaining Minotaur was left.
...Finally?
It had taken over a month to reach the 20th Floor — roughly three to four days per floor. To other parties, that would have looked like a breakneck pace, but all we'd really done was add Ha Yoo-jin to a group that had already cleared this far.
Then again, we'd suffered plenty ourselves thanks to the random-condition passages, so it wasn't a bad speed. Get unlucky and climbing to the next floor could take a filthy amount of time. That was why Han Ba-da's party had even overtaken us once on the 15th Floor. Compared to that, this run had been relatively smooth.
But because I was doing work I hadn't even bothered with in the first cycle, even that single month had felt interminably long.
For the past month, my life had been an almost unbroken loop of work, the Goddess Temple, work, the Goddess Temple. Even the Temple visits had been squeezed into what little rest time I had. In truth, they hadn't wanted to give me rest time at all — I'd carved it out myself, using the excuse that my body would rust if I did nothing but work.
Thanks to the women's help and his own monstrous talent, Ha Yoo-jin had shown an insane growth rate even while climbing floors. His level was inevitably lower than ours, but his stats were sitting at a height that had no business belonging to that deficit. In particular, he'd been filling in the Strength and Stamina he'd been lacking.
He was looking at 20 now. That much in a single month was absurd. Nam Eun-ju, watching Ha Yoo-jin close the gap on her heels, had realized that he too was a talent monster — and the spirit she'd only recently managed to recover had promptly died all over again.
On top of that, everyone except the low-level humans had already fought everything there was to fight, so even that steep growth curve had flattened considerably. Still, her potential had risen, and with the Tower's Blessing she'd gained skill slots and achievements besides. If she caught another wave, there was still room to grow even faster.
Which meant my planned project — raising Nam Eun-ju from the very bottom — had been somewhat postponed.
If she continued to receive the Tower's favor like this, there was a chance she might become one of those truly, truly rare cases: a first-string fighter who'd climbed up from rock bottom.
A Ranker, though... well. It wasn't that no one had ever started from the bottom and become a Ranker. But those were cases where the environment had been garbage — their own talent had been more than sufficient.
Think about it. The average number of initial skill slots among Rankers was eight or nine. Initial skill slots themselves were proof of talent. You couldn't say someone with that many slots had no gift.
Well, she'd started with three skill slots and grown to four, so there was no law saying they couldn't increase further — but I wasn't sure it was actually possible. From here on, the Tower wasn't going to bump her slots just for soloing a Minotaur phantom the way it had before.
If Nam Eun-ju soloed the 20th Floor boss, maybe she'd get one more...
I don't have time to wait for that.
Her stats were lacking. Her technique was lacking. The 20th Floor Minotaur's specs weren't designed to be faced alone in the first place. There was a reason nearly thirty people piled onto it in a mob.
I could do it, though. With Nam Eun-ju's precedent in mind, I'd once used a rest period to go to the 20th Floor instead of the Temple and tried a solo raid on the Minotaur. There was a ceiling on my attack power, and because I'd fought as safely as possible it had taken nearly three hours, but the raid itself had succeeded. Not that it had given me anything.
That was probably because my current physical potential and skill slot count were actually superior even compared to Rankers. Skill slots: the Tower's Blessing occupied one of those, so even excluding it I had the same number as the Archmage, and if you counted that one as a slot too, I was tied with Na Seoyun. On top of that, my physical potential had grown thanks to a Legendary-grade elixir, and I'd inherited some of my first-cycle stats besides — so my current physical stats were the highest of anyone. In other words, looking at the Tower as a whole, the odds that I was number one were vanishingly close to certain.
Which meant the achievement evaluation would probably be stingy, too. It wasn't the kind of desperate effort or brush with death that the Tower loved — I'd just done something I was already capable of, without much fuss. I hadn't struggled the way Nam Eun-ju had. And in the first place, spending that time raising the others was more efficient. Any effort I put in now was bound to be excessively inefficient because of my level. Which meant most achievements wouldn't even register as achievements.
It was a little unfair, but there was nothing I could do about it.
"We just need to take down the 20th Floor boss — the Minotaur. I think we could handle it ourselves, but... safety first, right?"
"Why not? Trying for an achievement like Eun-ju did wouldn't be so bad, would it?"
I'd recently started speaking casually with Nam Eun-ju. In private she called me Shin-hoo oppa; in official settings she still called me Party Leader. The only person in the party I still spoke formally with was Joo Ha-yeon. And I had no intention of changing that. It was better for her and for me. Joo Ha-yeon was serving as the party's second-in-command, after all.
"...That's a bit..."
Joo Ha-yeon looked uncomfortable. Honestly, they could probably take it down without me. Of course, a one-on-one like Nam Eun-ju's was absolutely out of the question. Even Na Seoyun couldn't do that. But as I'd said, there was no reason to attempt something that reckless. I was here.
"Has Yoo-jin grown a lot?"
"...Yes. Fortunately, he's grown remarkably well... It honestly feels like Seoyun's growth rate. No — considering how much we've done for him overall, you could even say it's faster than Seoyun's."
Faster than Na Seoyun. The pace would start slowing from here, but just hearing that comparison, even briefly, was enough to guess at Ha Yoo-jin's potential.
"And his weapon...?"
"He handles it well enough, they say. I heard he didn't have any weapon-related skills, but now he wields a dagger quite competently. He's working incredibly hard."
Skills didn't necessarily require a purchase or a card. Some techniques, if used often enough, could be registered in a skill slot to boost efficiency and receive the Tower's assistance. Swordsmanship could also be acquired through consistent practice in extremely rare cases — it did happen. But honestly, I strongly advised against that method.
Skills — especially ones like swordsmanship — were virtually impossible to register through actions alone, short of purchasing them. Weapon skills, at least, were best acquired through the Temple. As the skill level and grade rose, the techniques your body absorbed and received from the system would put most swordsmanship manuals to shame. There was even a saying that weapon skills should always go through the Temple. If you didn't purchase them, you wouldn't receive that caliber of swordsmanship knowledge from the Tower. You'd have to create it yourself.
Once we reached the Lower Floors, the first skill I'd have Ha Yoo-jin learn would be a weapon skill like Dagger Mastery. The sooner a trainee learned and developed it, the better.
"So we're getting out of here now, Shin-hoo oppa?"
"Yeah. Looks like it."
Leaving the delighted Nam Eun-ju behind, I went straight to find Han Ba-da.
"What is it?"
"I'll be leaving the Labyrinth shortly."
No more administrative work. I declared it without a hint of shame.
"...And what do you intend to do with those administrator privileges you've been holding onto?"
She worried about the strangest things. Those would just stay as they were.
"If I die, the authority transfers to you as the sub-administrator anyway. If I don't die, it matters even less. Just keep running things the way you have been."
She nodded, speaking as if that much were obvious.
"Then... this is goodbye."
It was. We probably wouldn't see each other for years. She would spend her time managing this place, and it would take years for the Labyrinth's society to collapse. Given how thoroughly I'd paved the way, I figured two or three years.
I'd distributed monster information, and far from obstructing hunts, we were actively encouraging and assisting them. At the alliance level, we'd even assigned helpers to those lacking in skill, reducing the danger of hunting itself. A floor that talentless people used to take six months to clear could now be done in three or four.
And I'd given her various pieces of personal advice as well.
"Do you remember what I told you?"
"...You mean all that nagging. Of course I do."
"Once things have stabilized and you feel the time is right, come out. I'll prepare your growth on the outside, as promised. Bring the mages with you then, too."
The mages would almost certainly come out last.
"And you should use the items I gave you as soon as possible. Strength can be substituted with mana to a certain degree. From my own experience, you'll grow quickly. I've already recovered half of it. And now that your growth is starting to stagnate, using the Temple wouldn't be a bad idea either."
"...I understand, so you can stop now."
I laughed awkwardly.
"You've worked that hard, after all. Don't worry too much. It'll work out."
I smiled at her as I said it.
"...I'd like to see you off. I've already called Lee Yoon-hyung and Cho Yeon-eun. Shall we go to the 20th Floor?"
She was busy, but I was the one leaving. Despite the suddenness, she'd willingly cleared her schedule.
The 20th Floor. With Han Ba-da's party watching, we advanced one step at a time toward the floor boss. And beside me now was Ha Yoo-jin, whose stats had grown at a storm's pace. Together with me — who served as both dealer and tank — he was taking the front-line dealer role, apparently.
Already?
I was worried he'd fall short, but considering contribution, leaving him on the sidelines wasn't an option. Nam Eun-ju was covering the Keeper role. Still, I needed to go as wild as possible on the front line, just in case. Since we were a party that had already cleared this, simply sitting him out could easily become poison.
The battle with the Minotaur seemed to take a fair amount of time, just as before. But surprisingly, we were able to shave a little off.
A blade punched through hide with a wet shhk.
The Minotaur's bellow shook the chamber.
Ha Yoo-jin moved stealthily around the boss, staying out of its line of sight, using stealth and silent footsteps to close in as near as possible, then striking a vital point in a sudden ambush before pulling back — a textbook hit-and-run. And because I was the one holding aggro, and because he used his skills and traits with precision, he was able to extract more damage than I'd expected. The party, having shaved off even a little time, smiled as they watched Ha Yoo-jin, still growing at a storm's pace.
How admirable, they said.
I thought so too, privately. He hadn't learned it halfheartedly. To think he'd already step up as a fighting force... It was surprising that a talent I'd recruited for the future was actually quite useful in the present. It wasn't entirely impossible, given Seoyun's precedent, but he seemed to have put in considerable effort himself.
When the battle ended, I gave Ha Yoo-jin's head a light pat, the way I often did with Na Seoyun. The boy who'd been about to ask if he'd done well broke into a bright smile at my gesture. It was praise, after all.
"That boy you recruited this time... I don't remember him being at that level?"
"Right? I haven't seen him in a while either, and I'm amazed."
Han Ba-da's astonishment. If even I was surprised, she must have been floored.
Ha Yoo-jin clung to my side, looking a little bashful. But he was soon pulled away by Na Seoyun to check whether he'd earned the qualification to enter the 21st Floor. I'd ordered it, just in case. The party didn't know you couldn't leave without a certain contribution threshold, so they found it odd, but they checked anyway.
Fortunately, he'd secured the qualification to escape the Labyrinth. In the past, there had been people who'd participated in the raid but still couldn't escape, so I'd had it checked out of an abundance of caution. No issues. Everyone successfully secured their escape qualification.
Our party and Han Ba-da's party stood at the entrance to the 21st Floor and exchanged our final farewells.
"We'll go on ahead, then."
She let out a short laugh.
"Go ahead. I'll be following soon enough."
I nodded, and with that, I turned around. Then Han Ba-da spoke quietly.
"Thank you for everything. Thanks to you, I kept my life and even achieved my goal."
"Don't mention it."
I answered without turning back.
"I'll be looking forward to it."
If I stayed any longer, the conversation would drag on. This was enough.
Would you like to escape the Labyrinth?
Y/N
I pressed Y without hesitation.