Entering the Lower Floors
The monsters raiding the village were gnolls. True to the Lower Floors, where gnolls made up the overwhelming majority of the local threats, there were a great many of them.
A horde of gnolls moved in crisp, unified purpose under a single gnoll's command, driving straight at the wooden palisade.
A centurion.
These were nothing like the chaotic rabble we'd faced in the Labyrinth. These creatures had formed real tribes — and though they fielded only two types of troops, they were a genuine monster army.
The gnolls in sight were brown-furred, but anyone who charged in thinking they were the same as the Labyrinth variety would pay dearly for it. Even ordinary gnolls here could hit level 25, and because they were treated as a commanded army, they continued to yield a modest but steady stream of experience even after that.
The average level people could reach on the Lower Floors sat around 40 to 45. If the Gnoll Hero were resurrected and the difficulty spiked the way it had in the first cycle, some would even break 50 before moving on to the Middle Floor. Climbing after hitting 50 on the Lower Floors was a nightmare of cascading consequences — the efficiency was garbage, the casualties were horrific, and down the line it would gut our side's political standing. It was a storyline that had to be avoided at all costs.
"They don't look all that dangerous, though?"
That would be about right. Monus Village would still be standing years from now. Things would get worse than they were at present, but the village would survive.
"Still, wouldn't it be better to help them? They'll probably hold the line either way, but if we step in it'll go more smoothly — and we'll have an easier time getting into the village besides."
Unexpectedly, it was Na-yeon who pushed the calculated angle and argued that we should help. Of course, that was what she said — but one look at her face made it obvious she just didn't want anyone dying if she could help it.
She wasn't wrong, though, so we decided to lend a light hand.
"Don't think of them as the brown gnolls from the 11th floor. Judging by how they move, they actually look stronger than the Golden Gnolls from the 20th."
"Yes, they certainly look that way. You heard that, right? Nobody lets their guard down."
After so long away from the Labyrinth, the sight of a village had everyone a little excited. Even Joo Ha-yeon was talking like that.
The moment combat began, though, every expression on the field changed.
I no longer needed to micromanage this side of things. Experience had taught the party that even if someone cracked a light remark before a fight, they should be wary of getting too wound up — and that once the fighting actually started, they needed a proper edge of tension and a mind that refused to get careless.
We needed to leave a strong impression. The village wasn't in any real crisis, and helping them was a favor we could just as easily have skipped.
What we needed was the position of capable mercenaries. I'd picked up a mercenary badge on the tutorial floors, but my record was short and my strength at the time had been so modest that it was only F-Rank. Given how much we'd accomplished in the tutorial, a rank-up from there hadn't been impossible — but it would have been pointless. I intended to have a new one issued here anyway, so I hadn't bothered.
I immediately cycled mana through my entire body, broke away from the party at a full sprint, and charged the gnolls.
I could feel a flicker of confusion from the others behind me, but nobody interfered with my actions in combat.
Joo Ha-yeon, who had taken over party orders whenever I was absent, snapped out instructions at once.
"Na-yeon, cover Shin-hoo! Eun-ju, you're Keeper — Yoojin, back her up. Seoyun, can you break through with Shin-hoo?"
"Yes. I think I can, Unni."
"Then break through. Just in case, I'll put the first shield on you."
Joo Ha-yeon spent extra holy power to cast Shield of Earth on her in advance. With her holy power grown and her proficiency built up, it looked like a new way of using the skill. It was a common enough technique. Chaining spells back-to-back could strain the circuits, so depending on the situation, pre-casting like that was the more efficient approach.
As I closed on the gnoll centurion at high speed, both the gnolls and the villagers showed a flicker of confusion.
"What the— a person? Don't tell me that's an adventurer?"
"Insane. What kind of adventurer comes all the way out here? Are they right in the head?"
"Could be a criminal, too…"
A lot of talking in the middle of a fight. That alone told me the village wasn't in any serious danger.
A burst of frantic barking tore from the centurion as it watched me come in on a dead straight line. The archers around it loosed at me at once.
The gnolls fielded two troop types: warriors who fought with blunt weapons, and bowmen. They sat somewhere between human infantry and cavalry. Their mobility was more than human foot soldiers could match, but they were a shade slower than horsemen, and they lacked the weight for a true cavalry charge. A middle ground between the two. The difference was that a halted cavalryman was helpless, while these things, even standing still, had the powerful bodies of monsters — which made them stronger than infantry. The archers, if anything, outclassed their human counterparts. Distinctive raw strength and their own methods of bow-making gave them a force that was nothing to sneeze at, and their mobility was a match for the warriors. There were simply fewer of them. Under a typical centurion, the archers numbered fewer than ten.
The arrows concentrated on me, but fewer than ten shafts were in the air. I casually batted them aside with my sword and kept closing on the centurion.
A sharp, urgent bark. Some of the warriors rushed to the centurion's side; others came straight at me.
They were fast enough. I was faster.
The centurion seemed to sense as much. It had already drawn its club and set itself to receive me. The archers, realizing their bows would do no good, pulled the small clubs they carried as sidearms and ringed the centurion to protect it.
I drew in a breath and wound my body tight.
Focusing my senses, I could even feel Na Seoyun charging the gnoll warriors that were coming for me.
I took another step and drove my mana harder.
An archer blocking my path swung its small club in resistance. I neatly sheared through the handle, closed right in on the gnoll archer, twisted my body, and swung.
The air itself resisted. I swung the sword like a club, striking with the flat instead of the edge.
Strike
A wet crunch. A wretched yelp. Ignoring the miserable scream of the gnoll archer I'd caught across the gut with the flat of the blade, I swung through as if to shove the body itself.
A heavy strain bit into my wrist. My strength still wasn't what it had been, but I trusted the durability of a body built on high stamina, and I poured mana into the motion to cover what I lacked.
The archer's feet left the ground. I succeeded in hurling it hard. A crunch, then a slam — I'd aimed the throw carefully, and two more archers went down like dominoes.
Three gone in a single beat. The path to the gnoll centurion opened all at once.
I slipped through the gap and this time swung the sword properly.
The gnoll centurion was a different breed.
It had called the others to it, yes — but that was the natural choice for a commander. Its own martial strength was not lacking. Among monsters, you didn't get to be a commander without a certain level of personal force.
A clear metallic ring, then a grinding, ugly screech of metal on metal. With surprising deftness, the centurion got its club in the way of my sword and managed to stop the first blow. Fitting for a centurion, the upper part of its weapon was sheathed in steel, unlike the other warriors' clubs. That was all it amounted to. I'd committed so much mana to reinforcing my strength that there wasn't enough riding the blade, and I hadn't been able to shear through in a single stroke. At my current levels of blade-mana and raw power, I couldn't instantly cut the steel-wrapped portion — only the handle. The sword raced down the length of the club.
The centurion tried to fall back and break the contact. I wasn't about to allow that. I pursued the retreating commander and took the arm off in a single stroke.
A wet slash. Unlike the other gnolls, it didn't scream in pain even with its arm gone — it barked out some unintelligible order instead.
I slipped the clubs of the archers coming at my back, cut two more of them down, and chased the centurion as it tried to withdraw again. Off-balance with an arm missing, it couldn't get far. My sword took its head.
And then —
Fireball
A beat late, a fireball detonated behind me and swept the remaining archers away.
"Na-yeon. You're late."
I muttered it with a touch of disappointment. The distance was too great for her to hear anyway. Honestly, I had gone in too fast and too deep. She'd held the shot so I wouldn't get caught in it — which made this closer to my fault than hers. But if this was my party, I wanted them to finish that calculation faster and match themselves to what I was doing. That was what I wanted. That was why I gathered talented people.
Na-yeon, apparently not having heard me, was already loosing her next spell at the other gnolls. I hadn't said it for her to hear in the first place, so I didn't particularly care. I charged the next wave.
The villagers who'd been laying down covering fire from atop the palisade half-stood by and watched us fight once the centurion was dead and fewer gnolls were trying to scale the wall. A few hunters sent arrows our way, but compared to Na-yeon it was a drop in the ocean.
The fight didn't last long. There had been a reason I'd gone for the centurion from the start. Lower Floor gnolls lost close to half their combat effectiveness the moment they lost their commander — they simply couldn't bring the strength of the group to bear. A disorganized mob wasn't anything to fear.
That was why I'd charged the centurion from the outset, without preamble. The battle turned into a one-sided slaughter before long, and it was wrapped up between me, Na Seoyun, and Na-yeon.
Clean. My stalled level even climbed to 22. I was probably the only one who'd gone up. Having essentially soloed the centurion, I'd claimed the lion's share of the contribution. The fact that I already had the highest experience total had likely played a part as well.
When the fighting was over and we approached the village wall at an easy pace, a shout came from the other side.
"Hey! Halt!"
I stopped as instructed.
As expected, they weren't going to make it easy…
"Not that way — go around to the right! The entrance is over there!"
A relief. It didn't look like they were going to turn us away at the gate.
This village, and the city that governed the surrounding region, had originally been founded by criminals. More precisely, the history of this city and its villages had begun when the Empire discarded its refuse and drove them out into this territory. It had been a long time ago, and plenty of ordinary people lived here now. The current lord's grandfather had, by all accounts, finished cleaning the place up. These days it was closer to a simple border village — except that the other side wasn't human, but monsters.
Even now, criminals were occasionally sent this way, or escaped here on their own, so the locals were sensitive about outsiders. The current lord disliked that sort as well. His grandfather had gone to the trouble of scrubbing the place clean, and he had an extreme hatred of newcomers coming in and dirtying the water.
All of which meant we'd been lucky enough to fasten the first button correctly. In the first cycle, I knew the vanguard had struggled considerably with this kind of problem. Apparently they'd been worked like common laborers. I didn't think our party, with our skill, would have had that kind of trouble either way.
The others, who'd been hanging back at a distance, caught up, and we headed for the village entrance.
One of the militiamen who'd just come off the fighting was there to meet us.
"Whoa — watching you fight, you really are adventurers, huh?"
There was a touch of wariness, but the look on his face carried unmistakable goodwill. I judged the situation to be reasonably favorable.
"We're mercenaries."
"Hm? Mercenaries? What are mercenaries doing all the way out here? What's there to eat?"
I caught Joo Ha-yeon's eye for a moment, gave her a rough look, and offered whatever excuse came to hand.
"I heard there were Golden Gnolls in this area?"
"There are, yeah. Abandoned mines, too, and gnolls all over the place — and if you came from the Empire, you'd have seen the lizardmen as well, right? Goblins in the forests."
"That's why we came. Golden gnoll hides seem to be selling decently these days. And if it's near the border, there's bound to be work, isn't there?"
"Work, sure… but most of it's monster hunting or village patrol. Nothing that pays real money, you know?"
"That's plenty. We came to build experience in the first place. We haven't been mercenaries for very long."
"Huh? With skills like that?"
"Haha. Yes. Here's our mercenary badge."
It was something I'd have to hand over for identification anyway. I naturally produced the mercenary badge I'd taken out of my inventory beforehand — the one I'd obtained in the tutorial — and showed it to him.
"Hm? F-Rank? When you've got a mage with you? What kind of idiot outfit hands an F-Rank mercenary badge to a mage? Melid? What the hell is this…"
"As I said, we haven't been mercenaries for very long. We're all from the same village. And she's not a mage — she's a Spirit Master."
"This thing's useless. You'd be better off going to the castle. I'd recommend getting a new one issued there. A mage — no, a Spirit Master, you said. Anyway, you've got someone like that, and the rest of you are decent in a fight, and they gave you F-Rank? You ran into some real garbage, didn't you?"
He looked incredulous. Then, suspicion creeping back in, I felt his eyes rake over us once more.
We could have been criminals trying to pull a deception. But no matter how you looked at it, the only men were me and an eight-year-old brat, plus four women — one of them a priestess, one a Spirit Master. It was a combination that was hard to take for a criminal band. On top of that, they were far more skilled than they looked; with a lineup like this, you'd make far more money working as mercenaries, the way we'd claimed, than running around committing crimes.
Thinking of us as spies was even more ridiculous. Who would send a spy to a backwater castle like this? There was only one castle in the entire area.
In the end, he seemed to settle on the conclusion that a bunch of naive country kids had banded together to become mercenaries, gotten mixed up with the wrong people, and taken a hit to the back of the head. He admitted the party into the village and said,
"Welcome to the village. Well — in exchange for staying inside, you'll have to help if the monsters come calling. If a fight breaks out, we'll make it worth your while. Agreed?"
"Of course. That's nothing."
As a border village, and with monsters on every side, they were sensitive about security. He seemed to like my ready answer. He clapped me on the shoulder and welcomed us to the village once more.
As we stepped inside, Joo Ha-yeon spoke to me.
"That was a good excuse."
"I just saw gnolls, that's all. Figured I'd mention the golden ones from the 20th floor, just in case. Their hide color was decent, wasn't it?"
If anyone asked what I'd have done if they hadn't existed, I would have simply said we'd come because of the rumors. We were here anyway, so we might as well take contracts and build our skills. I'd mentioned it because I'd known they were here from the start.
"They really were. Anyway — I wonder where District 35 is?"
Joo Ha-yeon was already turning over the Lower Floors mission, and District 35.
"We only just made it to a village. Why are you already worrying about that?"
"…Huh?"
Na-yeon, who'd been listening from the side, stared at me with a look of utter disbelief.
"…Oppa?"
Na Seoyun was the same. Nam Eun-ju was looking at me as if she couldn't quite believe it either. Only Yoojin, who still had no idea how desperately I'd been clawing my way toward the Upper Floors, glanced around at the others in puzzlement.
"Come on, we pushed pretty hard this time around. Besides, Bada's down below managing things just fine."
I laid down a reasonable bit of groundwork and spoke to the party.
"For now, let's take it easy and figure things out as we go."
Blank, slack faces all around. Joo Ha-yeon looked at me as if she were trying to work out what I was plotting. She didn't say anything else.
I simply looked at them as if I meant every word, and gave them a bright smile.