15. Omen
"What do you want to do, Do-hyeon?"
"Let's go hear them out first."
If we were going to be hunting the same things anyway, there was a lot to gain and nothing to lose. We headed for the place called the hobgoblins' forward base.
The forward base we reached using the map was a fortress built of wood. The walls, made of sharpened wooden stakes, were a reminder that this place was a battlefield.
"That token, the Incubus Race, I see. So you're the ones Robin wouldn't shut up about!"
"I heard we can receive rewards based on our achievements. Where do we confirm that?"
"If you want to take on missions, go that way. If you want to receive rewards, go the other way."
His explanation seemed half-hearted, but since there were many others heading to the same places, the way was easy to find.
Let's check the rewards first. It was a system where you purchased things with Merit Points earned according to missions completed or the number of orcs killed.
"It seems similar to Contribution Points."
"Really? I've never accumulated Contribution Points, so I wouldn't know."
Everyone was bringing orc heads and exchanging them for Merit Points.
"Should we be collecting orc heads separately too?"
"Why not just ask?"
When we asked the hobgoblin managing the Merit Point exchange,
"That token, you're Incubus Race who offer orcs to a god. If you bring orc weapons, we'll count those as proof."
That was the answer.
"Should we not have sold the weapons yesterday?"
"But we have to cover living expenses."
In that case, let's look at what items could be obtained with Merit Points.
The most popular items were potions. The price was 10 Merit Points. Something whose ingredients alone cost 25 gold coins could be obtained by killing just 10 orcs?
"Look over there, Do-hyeon."
One wall of the exchange was decorated with various items.
"They're all magic items."
The displayed items were varied. Weapons, shields, even cloaks and rings.
There were descriptions written beneath each item, but they were written in an unknown language.
"It doesn't seem to be the common tongue."
In the labyrinth world, thanks to the gods' boons, people could use a common language, but monsters and minority races were said to have their own native languages.
"We'll just have to ask for an explanation."
Since Tia was being treated like my slave or servant by them, I asked directly myself. The hobgoblin managing the shop readily explained.
Most were weapons and armor enchanted to be sharp or sturdy, but there was one item that caught my eye.
"This is a Cloak of Protection. As the name suggests, it protects you from enemy attacks and spells."
The description was nice, but I couldn't get a sense of how effective it actually was.
『A Cloak of Protection provides +1 to Armor Class and +1 to all saving throws.』
Thanks, Mary. Armor Class was a concept I understood to some extent.
If you equipped yourself with good armor, your Armor Class rose and could deflect attacks, and certain spells also provided Armor Class.
My base Armor Class was 13; Mage Armor raised it to 16, and the Shield spell temporarily raised it to 21.
In that sense, a permanent +1 to Armor Class was nice, but a little underwhelming. What did +1 to all saving throws mean?
『It increases your chance of resisting effects such as spells by 5%.』
Spell effects were powerful. For example, among the 1st-circle spells I hadn't chosen, there was this one.
Charm Person. You cast it on one humanoid target, and if the target fails a Wisdom saving throw, it is charmed for 1 hour.
If something like that hit you in combat, you'd suddenly be unable to attack the enemy. So it raised the success rate of "saving throws" against spells like that?
『Affirmative. It also works on saving throws other than spells.』
According to Mary's explanation, it also raised the chance of escaping a giant spider's web or reacting to things like a collapsing floor trap.
Good, let's check the price of this item.
"It's 100 Merit Points."
We'd have to kill 100 orcs? No, since I wasn't going to monopolize two people's share by myself, Tia and I would have to kill 200 orcs together to get this cloak.
Isn't that too expensive? No wonder everyone was only buying potions.
"If you want to accumulate a lot of Merit Points, apply for missions."
Now that he mentioned it, there was also talk of missions. I thanked the hobgoblin who had explained, and we moved to the mission assignment area.
"100 orcs? Isn't that expensive?"
"No. Considering the price of magic items, it's actually absurdly cheap."
"Are magic items that expensive?"
"If you tried to buy an item like that outside, it would cost 400 gold coins."
At those words, my dissatisfaction completely vanished. They were valuing each orc at 4 gold coins?
As we walked while talking, we soon arrived at the mission assignment post. Various missions were posted on the wall, but none of them were readable.
Fortunately, perhaps because there were others besides us who couldn't read—mostly goblins—one hobgoblin was explaining the missions.
"What missions can earn a lot of Merit Points in a short time?"
"Robin's words about you being honorable ones who know no fear were not empty. For a mission like that, it would be discovering the orcs' main base."
"How many Merit Points if we find it?"
"You can earn 300 Merit Points."
"Good, let's go with this one, Tia."
"Are you sure? Isn't it a dangerous mission?"
"Infiltration is our specialty, isn't it?"
"Well, that's true, but."
"Tia, you were eyeing that shortbow on the wall too."
"You noticed?!"
"We can't kill 200 orcs. Let's do this."
"Ah, fine. But we have to avoid dangerous situations!"
"Of course."
We accepted the mission like that and left the forward base.
***
I hadn't thought it would be an easy mission, but finding the orcs' main base was difficult.
We had to explore areas not on the map the hobgoblins had provided, because the labyrinth was incredibly tangled and complex.
"This area is blocked off like this."
"So it's not here either."
"Right. The next area to check is here."
"We'll have to walk a long way again."
Pushing into the orcs' territory and filling in the gaps one by one was tedious. I'd almost rather we ran into a lot of orcs, but the orcs were also concentrated along the territorial border with the hobgoblins, so we couldn't find any at all.
Fortunately, since they counted it toward Merit Points if we brought back map data, we were able to earn 10 Merit Points, but—
"Only 300 experience?"
"Calling it 'only' is odd when it's higher than the average for a 3rd-level party."
"True, subsistence parties earn 150 Contribution Points a day, you said."
Today's income was 16 Merit Points.
Split with Tia, that was 8 per person.
Fortunately, after converting the orc weapons to Merit Points, I told them I planned to sell the blades elsewhere, and they cut them off for me. At least we weren't completely without monetary income.
But I started to think that maybe it would be better to just hunt orcs to death.
"If you do that, you'll hit 5th level before you can even get magic items, and then you'll have to go down to the middle floors."
"Can't 5th-level people stay in the upper-floor city?"
"A brief stay is possible, but activities like regular hunting are not."
"Why?"
"Because then a disaster befitting a 5th-level party will occur."
"Now that you mention it, you talked about a great disaster before. What are disasters and great disasters?"
"A disaster is a phenomenon that periodically appears around a city."
Sometimes as a single powerful monster,
sometimes as a pack of monsters,
sometimes as terrain that encroaches on the surroundings, she said.
"A disaster must be subjugated by a party befitting that disaster's level."
Otherwise, an even stronger disaster would simply appear anew.
"A great disaster is a disaster that has grown to a scale that threatens a city, or one that appeared at such a scale from the start."
She added that the former occurred when a small disaster was left unsubjugated or was subjugated in the wrong way, while the latter appeared once every long cycle.
"So what you said before about subsistence parties not being able to endure a great disaster—"
"During a great disaster, a city-wide mobilization order is issued."
"At that time, those who had been complacent in their peace must pay the price."
"So that's what you meant."
Those who had enjoyed luxury while only fighting weak enemies would lose their lives in a great disaster where they had to fight monsters on equal footing.
But those who trained while worrying about a great disaster that could come at any time would have already grown and gone deeper.
The labyrinth's ecology seemed almost designed to stop anyone from living comfortably. I could sympathize a little with Eira calling it a garbage place.
"But even considering that, isn't leveling up the faster way to get stronger?"
"Do-hyeon, do you want to get strong quickly? Or do you want to become the strongest?"
"If I had to pick one, the strongest would be better, right?"
"Then there's no need to obsess over leveling speed."
Tia said that in a closed labyrinth, if you earned experience by fighting monsters on equal footing, there was no need to be impatient.
"We're not in a race to earn experience quickly."
"What matters is becoming stronger at the same level."
Otherwise, when the labyrinth suddenly imposed a trial, you wouldn't be able to overcome it. I hadn't experienced a trial myself, but since Tia was saying it, there had to be a reason.
"So reaching 5th level will be after we've gotten everything we can get here."
"If your experience becomes excessive, converting it to Contribution Points would also be good."
***
And so our new daily routine began.
"Class president, you're 3rd level? Congratulations."
"Do-hyeon, you'd already hit 3rd level, hadn't you? I was going to brag about it."
"......Who told you?"
"Se-rin did. I was going to go brag to you, and she stopped me."
After returning from the dungeon, I joined the class students to chat, then returned to the inn.
I enjoyed dinner and a bath with Tia and fell asleep.
"What I'll teach you today is about the Emergency Mana Circuit."
In the early morning, we went to the Great Library. Tia did research while I spent a heated time with Eira and then received lessons.
On the way back, we stopped by the smithy and disposed of the orc weapon blades.
"Not only honorable, but seasoned warriors! I've never seen anyone accumulate Merit Points as quickly as you two!"
After that, we searched for the orcs' main base on the second floor of the cave.
After updating the map, we went to the forward base, received Merit Points, and returned.
It was repetitive but rewarding.
The first time this daily routine was shaken was on the 8th day. When we returned from the labyrinth, Kim Yun-ho was arguing with the teacher.
"I'm not doing it. No."
"Kim Yun-ho!"
"We're leaving. Lee Se-rin, you'd better get out quickly too."
And before I could do anything, Kim Yun-ho's party left. Judging by Deok-su's bewildered expression, it didn't seem to have been expected. From the next day on, Lee Se-rin's party was visibly exhausted.
"Teacher, I'm sorry, but we can't keep looking after people like that. We're fighting with our lives on the line."
On the 10th day, Lee Min-chan's party left. That day, Lee Se-rin's face looked especially haggard.
"Do-hyeon, do you see it?"
"Is that a fortress?"
"An earthen fortification of that scale is definitely their main base."
On the 11th day, we finally found the orc main base.
"I knew you would succeed! With this, the fight against those accursed orcs is in its final stages."
With this, we obtained 300 Merit Points.
Adding the Merit Points we'd earned from providing map data and hunting orcs so far, the total exceeded 400.
"With this many Merit Points, we could buy two magic items each, couldn't we?"
"But is it all right? The hobgoblins don't acknowledge me."
"They won't complain if I buy them and give them to you."
Fortunately, all the Merit Points were treated as my share, but the hobgoblins didn't care much about whom I gave items bought with my Merit Points to.
"Then pick something."
First, I purchased the Cloak of Protection.
While I was looking for what else might be good, Tia brought over a small stone.
"What kind of stone is that?"
"A Luckstone. A luck stone."
Similar to the Cloak of Protection, it gave a bonus to saving throws, but instead of Armor Class, it gave a bonus to ability checks.
"I'll choose this and a +1 weapon."
A +1 shortbow and a Luckstone. That seemed like a decent choice.
While I was examining the items displayed on the wall, a pearl caught my eye.
It wouldn't be displayed just because it was a simple gem, would it?
"You have a good eye. That's a Pearl of Power. A pearl that restores spells."
The exchange manager said that while it required attunement, items that restored spells were rare.
"Attunement?"
"Ah, you didn't know?"
Among magic items, there were some that only performed properly after the owner went through an attunement process for a certain period of time.
He explained that equipment requiring attunement had stronger performance, but you could only attune to three pieces of equipment at a time.
"That Cloak of Protection you've had your eye on is also equipment that requires attunement."
He added that the Luckstone Tia was holding was the same.
So high-performance equipment required attunement.
If I could attune to three, there was plenty of room even after attuning to two.
As I was thinking that, the exchange manager looked at the sword on my waist and said,
"In my opinion, that sword you're wearing also seems to require attunement."
The sword Dismas had given me still hadn't been delivered to Lee Se-rin because the opportunity hadn't come up.
As one of the Mirage Knight features, I had become able to use swords, so I figured trying it out once wouldn't be bad.
Even if I gave it as a gift later, I couldn't give away something I didn't know anything about, right?
"Could you perhaps identify what kind of sword this is?"
"I don't know its detailed properties. But there is a way to find out."
"What is it?"
"Attune to the item by channeling mana into it for about an hour."
The manager added that if the item was cursed, this method wouldn't reveal it.
Since it was a gift from Dismas, I didn't think I needed to worry about a curse.
"Thank you. Then please exchange my Merit Points for four items, including this one."
"You're the biggest customer since this exchange was established. Knowing your character, you won't brag about it, so I'll brag on your behalf."
I couldn't understand this hobgoblin sensibility, but since it wasn't harmful, I let it be.
And so we obtained four magic items: the Cloak of Protection, the Pearl of Power, the Luckstone, and the +1 shortbow.
I put on the cloak and placed the pearl in my inner pocket. Tia tucked the Luckstone into her chest and picked up the shortbow.
When we finished our adventure and returned to the shrine, the number of waiting class students had noticeably decreased.
I had maintained relationships even after going independent, but the other two parties seemed to have cut ties entirely.
Kim Yun-ho's party and Lee Min-chan's party had both already left, so the remaining students were all girls.
Not long after we returned, Lee Se-rin's party also came back.
But Lee Se-rin's condition looked especially bad. Was it just my imagination?
With half the people gone and Lee Se-rin looking grim, the walk home that day was unusually quiet.
The class president, who would normally have tried to lighten the mood, also seemed too busy watching over Lee Se-rin to do so.
Tia and I returned to the inn, and we were communing with the sword as the exchange manager had instructed when—
Teacher Kwon Chae-a came to our lodging.
"Do-hyeon, can you help me with something?"
