Explorer Support Center

Explorer Support Center

To my surprise, the Galaxy Hotel where we were staying served breakfast.

Well, of course they do — at those room rates, they'd better.

I scooped up a generous spoonful of the steaming stew and put it in my mouth. A deep, heavy rush of meat juices and the soft, crumbling sweetness of potato filled my mouth and settled warmly in my stomach. I tore off a piece of freshly baked bread — crisp on the outside, chewy within — soaked it thoroughly in the stew broth, and the sweet hit of carbohydrate exploded across my tongue. Adding a soft scramble of eggs finished with butter, I felt like my tongue was melting.

I finished with a coffee rinse, then looked across the table at Serena, who was quietly working her spoon, and asked,

"Serena, do you know anything about the fourth floor?"

She chewed carefully, then answered in a cautious voice.

"What I know is... that from the fourth floor onward, it gets drastically more dangerous."

"Drastically?"

"Yes. That's why the skills you were granted as rewards while climbing up to the third floor matter so much. People who rolled decent combat skills can keep going deeper, but if all they got were useless weird ones... unless their own raw ability is overwhelming, going any lower is basically impossible."

I listened in silence, turning it over in my head.

From the first floor through the third of the labyrinth, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could pick up a total of three skills on entry. The usual haul was a random F-rank or E-rank skill. If you were absurdly, truly absurdly lucky, you might land a D-rank or even a C-rank — but more important than the rank was the type.

Even a high-rank skill was worthless if it didn't help in a fight.

I ran through my own skills in my mind.

One A-rank and two S-ranks. Not bad — but I was nowhere near invincible. If I wanted a useful skill when I entered the fourth floor, I needed information on the fourth floor itself. What monsters showed up. What the terrain was like.

After we finished eating, we went back to the hotel front desk. We knew nothing, so the only thing we could rely on was the hotel's concierge service.

Behind the desk, instead of the woman from yesterday, a neatly dressed male clerk greeted us.

"I'd like to extend our stay by one day."

"Thank you, sir. May I have your room key?"

I handed over the key and casually got to the point.

"By the way — if we wanted information on the fourth floor, or to find party members, where would we go?"

True to a high-end hotel staffer, he answered without missing a beat.

"For that, you would want the Explorer Support Center, located beside the fourth-floor transfer stele in the city's central plaza."

"Explorer Support Center? There's a place like that?"

"Yes, sir."

Pretty friendly city, this one.

"Thanks for the tip."

"We're grateful to you, sir. Have a pleasant day."

I left today's lodging fee — four hundred thousand Truna — on the counter and walked out of the hotel with Serena.

Money really was the best. Expensive places were polite.

We headed toward the central plaza of the city.

Entrum, the labyrinth city, thronged with every kind of human specimen. There would be people born here who lived their whole lives without ever leaving. Had those people ever once seen the sky?

Idle thoughts like that drifted through my head as we walked, and it suddenly occurred to me to wonder what skill Serena had gotten when she entered the third floor.

"Serena — speaking of which, what skill did you get on the third floor?"

She had been trailing quietly behind me. She stopped dead, then answered in a voice that barely crawled out of her throat.

".... F-rank. Glossy Skin..."

"What? Pfft — hahahaha! No wonder your skin felt so soft and springy yesterday! Hahahaha! Still better than the Aggro Draw you got on the second floor, though!"

I made no effort to hold back the laugh that burst out of me and needled her without mercy.

"You're so loud! You creep! Pervert!"

Serena's face went red as if it might burst. She snapped at me for no good reason, then whipped her head away; those emerald-green eyes were trembling with pure mortification.

"Don't worry~ Stick with me and you'll pick up dozens more skills eventually."

Going down was already a settled law of nature. If she rolled around at the bottom with me long enough, sooner ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or later Serena would snag at least one combat skill worth using.

Following the main avenue, a massive statue came into view. A man in splendid armor, his sword raised high toward the sky.

Beneath the statue, the inscription read:

"So this is the guy who built the city?"

I said, looking up at the statue.

"Seems that way. I've heard there's a family that rules the labyrinth city. That would be the Entrum family, I think."

Serena added.

I looked toward the distant inner keep. Was that where he lived? Did the ruler of this labyrinth city know something?

But as I was now, even if I went looking for the lord, I wouldn't get close enough to see so much as his fingertip. I needed more power.

Once I'd stacked a few more skills, I thought, I should pay him a visit.

When we finally reached the central plaza, a massive stone pillar — something like a dolmen or a hunk of Stonehenge — stood planted right in the middle of the square. Strange characters I had never seen before were carved densely across its surface.

In front of it, explorers in twos and threes would walk up, touch the stele, and vanish in a flash of light.

So that's the fourth-floor transfer magic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠circle...

And right beside it stood a large stone building.

A crowd was already packed around the entrance.

A place to share labyrinth intelligence and broker party members.

We went straight in without delay.

The interior of the Support Center was packed and noisy. The people inside fell into two broad camps.

Explorers trying to climb back up to the surface, and explorers trying to go deeper underground.

The former clearly outnumbered the latter, but our business was with the second group.

I took Serena by the wrist and walked toward the section where those aiming for the fourth floor had gathered.

The humans clustered there looked different from the start — the quality of their gear alone set them apart. The place was thick with veterans who radiated a rough, dangerous air.

But everyone's dressed pretty light. Is the fourth floor hot, maybe?

Just then, Serena carefully tugged at my collar from behind.

"Look over there."

Where she pointed, a huge notice board covered an entire stretch of wall, dense with writing.

I read every last character of the meticulously detailed fourth-floor brief without missing a word.

They must have gotten tired of explorers asking the staff the same questions over and over, so they'd simply nailed the whole thing to the wall in giant print. I liked that.

That was when it happened.

"Hey. Low-floor parties recruit on the other side."

A voice thick with contempt stabbed into my ear from behind.

I turned right around.

Standing there with his arms crossed, looking thoroughly full of himself, was a clean-featured man with a massive iron shield on his back and a short sword at his hip.

His gaze lingered on my shabby clothes, then on Serena standing quietly behind me with her staff clutched tight. Thanks to her F-rank beauty skill, her face had a ridiculous polish to it — and the corner of the man's mouth curled up as he looked at her.

"What are you rookies doing sniffing around here with beginner written all over you? Reading the fourth-floor brief doesn't mean greenhorns like you can survive this place."

The men who looked like his party started snickering behind him and jeering at us.

What is this dazzling hospitality?

I didn't bother hardening my expression. If anything, I had to hold back the smile that wanted to tug at the corner of my mouth. Walking into the Explorer Support Center and having luck stroll right up to me on its own two feet.

A charity angel, here to donate Magic Stones?

My heart started to pound.

I took a quiet step forward, met the man's stare head-on, and murmured low.

"That shield looks pretty solid. But you know what? I think I'm stronger than you."

I spoke the magic words that turn a person into a golden goblin.