Chapter 101: Rumors (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 101: Rumors (3)
Darkness descended as soon as I entered the labyrinth. Quickly taking out a torch to light the surrounding area, I placed my hand on the tombstone in front of me. Wow, how long had it been since I'd done this?
Whooom!
The sight of a five-colored light emanating from a tombstone that had not yet been touched by anyone and a stabbing sensation in the heart—these were unique feelings that you only got to experience when you free-rode through life.
[You are the first one to open this portal. EXP +2]
"W-What?" Missha breathed, staring at the shimmering halo of light that had already taken shape in front of us. "Did you just open the porrrtal?"
She probably didn't know a bug like this existed. I repeated exactly what I said to Ainar back then. "The dimensional instability phenomenon? You can use that like this."
Unlike Ainar, who gave up on trying to understand, Missha tried her best to make sense of it. Of course, it didn't work out very well. The actual principle behind it was difficult for even me to explain. I was just taking advantage of a phenomenon that I had come across by luck.
"...I feel sorry for Rotmillerrr."
"Hmm?"
"If he knew something like this was possible... he'd be very surprised. Just like I was when I used that ring to make a contrrract with the Soul Beast."
Oh, that was what she meant. I had been wondering what she was talking about all of a sudden. Rotmiller would definitely feel a great sense of inadequacy if he found out about this cheat.
"Even if it's not now, if I work hard, the day will come when I open a portal with my own hands. That is my dream as a scout."
He had once carefully revealed his aspirations to us at the tavern. He was very serious about his job as a scout. It wasn't even that wild a dream, either. In fact, his ability to pathfind was quite respectable. I didn't know about the other floors, but at least on the first floor where he had worked his ass off for years, he was definitely a highly-skilled adventurer. If he could shorten his time by two more hours, that dream of his may come true. It wouldn't be easy, though.
"Then let's go up."
Enough chatter. I entered the portal with Missha.
[You have entered the Rock Desert on the second floor.]
Sand crumbled beneath my feet, and hot air rose from below. Shadows cast by stone rubble followed the flickering torch as it moved through the pitch-black darkness.
"It's the Rock Desert."
Of all the places... I led Missha down to the first floor again. Then, following the compass, we headed east.
Since we landed on the opposite side, it'll probably take two days to walk there.
If we had entered the labyrinth the normal way, it would only have taken us a day to get anywhere we wanted to go. Well, you win some, you lose some. Plus, the EXP gained from opening the portal may only have been two, but it was a type that could be perpetually accumulated. If I could earn that just by walking an extra day, I would definitely profit.
"Ugh, I definitely feel Rotmillerrr's absence now."
In about three hours, we got out of the outermost part of the dark zone. Even if we were following the compass, we still ended up at dead ends every once in a while.
"Still, isn't it nice that the two of us are walking togetherrr?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Just... Being a noisy group of five is nice, but this isn't so bad, eitherrr."
At first, I wondered what she meant, but when I heard her out, I think I got what she was trying to say. Hikurod and Dwalkie talked too much. I couldn't lie and say they didn't make me laugh sometimes, but most of the time I was exhausted just listening to them.
"Gigeek!"
After escaping the dark zone, we were walking through the softly lit crystal cave when monsters attacked us. The monsters that appeared in this western section were gnomes. Like most rank-nine monsters, they were a one-shot kill.
"Gik—?!"
They were like clay dolls that turned into a paste with a single macing and disappeared. Killing them wasn't a problem, but it was annoying. Gnomes had the active skill of Unification, a stealth skill that meant you had to be within a radius of ten feet to be able to see them.
If Rotmiller were here, we could have killed each one the second he noticed them.
I wasn't sure if it was because we'd been working as a five-person team up to this point, but while I may not have missed the dwarf, I kind of missed the other guy. He was the jack-of-all-trades type who always did his job quietly in the back. Oh, and Dwalkie. If he were here, we wouldn't have to pick up the mana stones ourselves.
"Bjorn, there's someone coming!" While I was lost in thought, Missha poked me in the side and called out to me in a quiet voice. As a beastwoman with highly attuned senses, she noticed their presence before me. "What are you going to do?"
What else was there to do? They must have sensed our presence a long time ago.
Clink, clink.
Before long, a team of five appeared in front of us—a legit team with a wizard and priest. As expected of a group of adventurers who had gotten this far in just three hours, the quality of their equipment was noticeable.
...Gotta be at least the sixth floor.
I didn't know what essences they had, but the grade three and four equipment covering them from head to toe was a strong indicator of level. An adventurer's equipment was akin to their ID. However, it seemed they were thinking along the same lines.
"Hmm."
The look in their eyes as they passed us by was suspicious and wary. Well, yeah. They wouldn't have imagined running into a barbarian and a beastwoman dressed only in second-grade materials here at this particular time.
Please just keep walking.
Fortunately, they passed us by without speaking to us. Rather than that being the result of my desperate wishes, they probably just didn't have the time.
"Mr. Levron, let's speed up a bit."
"Okay."
It was fortunate that they were speedrunning. They may not have known how we got here, but they probably assumed there were other rivals that may have progressed even faster.
You guys are already the fastest.
Since we were moving backward from the portal, I knew that these guys were at the very front of the herd. Though, even if they were, all they'd find was a portal that had already been opened.
"Wow, those people really run everywhere." Missha expressed admiration upon seeing adventurers speedrunning for the first time. It took less than two seconds for them to come into view and pass us by, but it seemed to have been quite impressive nonetheless.
"What are you looking at? Someday we'll have to do that too."
"...Us?" Missha cocked her head.
Well, no matter how much I told her about our future plans right now, she wouldn't be able to picture herself doing any of it. It wasn't that long ago that she had been treated like a half-wit by her family because she couldn't even contract a Soul Beast.
At first, I wondered what she meant, but when I heard her out, I think I got what she was trying to say. Hikurod and Dwalkie talked too much. I couldn't lie and say they didn't make me laugh sometimes, but most of the time I was exhausted just listening to them.
"Gigeek!"
After escaping the dark zone, we were walking through the softly lit crystal cave when monsters attacked us. The monsters that appeared in this western section were gnomes. Like most rank-nine monsters, they were a one-shot kill.
"Gik—?!"
They were like clay dolls that turned into a paste with a single macing and disappeared. Killing them wasn't a problem, but it was annoying. Gnomes had the active skill of Unification, a stealth skill that meant you had to be within a radius of ten feet to be able to see them.
If Rotmiller were here, we could have killed each one the second he noticed them.
I wasn't sure if it was because we'd been working as a five-person team up to this point, but while I may not have missed the dwarf, I kind of missed the other guy. He was the jack-of-all-trades type who always did his job quietly in the back. Oh, and Dwalkie. If he were here, we wouldn't have to pick up the mana stones ourselves.
"Bjorn, there's someone coming!" While I was lost in thought, Missha poked me in the side and called out to me in a quiet voice. As a beastwoman with highly attuned senses, she noticed their presence before me. "What are you going to do?"
What else was there to do? They must have sensed our presence a long time ago.
Clink, clink.
Before long, a team of five appeared in front of us—a legit team with a wizard and priest. As expected of a group of adventurers who had gotten this far in just three hours, the quality of their equipment was noticeable.
...Gotta be at least the sixth floor.
I didn't know what essences they had, but the grade three and four equipment covering them from head to toe was a strong indicator of level. An adventurer's equipment was akin to their ID. However, it seemed they were thinking along the same lines.
"Hmm."
The look in their eyes as they passed us by was suspicious and wary. Well, yeah. They wouldn't have imagined running into a barbarian and a beastwoman dressed only in second-grade materials here at this particular time.
Please just keep walking.
Fortunately, they passed us by without speaking to us. Rather than that being the result of my desperate wishes, they probably just didn't have the time.
"Mr. Levron, let's speed up a bit."
"Okay."
It was fortunate that they were speedrunning. They may not have known how we got here, but they probably assumed there were other rivals that may have progressed even faster.
You guys are already the fastest.
Since we were moving backward from the portal, I knew that these guys were at the very front of the herd. Though, even if they were, all they'd find was a portal that had already been opened.
"Wow, those people really run everywhere." Missha expressed admiration upon seeing adventurers speedrunning for the first time. It took less than two seconds for them to come into view and pass us by, but it seemed to have been quite impressive nonetheless.
"What are you looking at? Someday we'll have to do that too."
"...Us?" Missha cocked her head.
Well, no matter how much I told her about our future plans right now, she wouldn't be able to picture herself doing any of it. It wasn't that long ago that she had been treated like a half-wit by her family because she couldn't even contract a Soul Beast.
"Sometimes, Bjorn, it seems like you have rrreally big ambitions. Is it because you're a barbarian?"
"...Are you being sarcastic?"
"Idiot, I'm trying to say it's cool!"
"Hmm." This kid could be too direct sometimes. Did she think she was a barbarian herself or something?
***
"Did you see the weapon that swordsman was holding earlierrr?"
"You mean the sword made of Orichalcum?"
"Yes, that! So it was Orichalcum. I wonderrr how much it'd cost to make a weapon out of that..."
After that, Missha continued to talk about the team we ran into earlier. She seemed to have a longing to be a high-ranking adventurer. Well, that was a much more positive emotion than jealousy or arrogance, but just longing wouldn't get you anything.
"Stop talking and move your feet."
"Hmph, if anyone hearrrd you, they'd think I wasn't moving at all."
Anyway, as we continued walking eastward, the frequency of our encounters with adventurers gradually increased. In the beginning, like the team we saw earlier, most of them were high-ranking adventurers. As time passed, though, their levels gradually decreased.
I got out my watch. It was 18:57, nineteen hours since the labyrinth opened. That meant we'd spent all day walking. Thanks to that, we were already at the usual starting point. In other words, we had reached the center of the first floor's Crystal Cave. Therefore, there was no need to worry about raising the suspicion of the high-ranking adventurers we ran into anymore.
Huh, I didn't expect this.
When we actually arrived, we still attracted attention.
"Did you just see that? The size of that mace..."
"I think that backpack is also an expandable one."
Adventurers looked at us with envy every time we passed them by. Well, I was sure we looked strange. Instead of hunting on a much higher floor like we appeared to be able to, we were in the middle of the first floor.
"Why is someone like that still here?"
It was around that time that we were looking for a companion for the night. Every time we passed a group of three or four adventurers, they all made comments. It felt a little strange.
There was a time when I was like that too.
When I first entered the labyrinth, like them, I found a night companion and took a break. The problem was that the first person I had met was Hans A.
"Why arrre you laughing all of a sudden?"
"Just thinking of the past."
Remembering how I'd had to pretend I was asleep with Hans A beside me while actually being tired as heck made me laugh. Before meeting Erwen, I really suffered through all sorts of hardships.
Oh, I wonder how she's doing.
Since she had a rich sister, I was sure she was doing fine, but I was curious. She was the first teammate I'd ever had in this world. Should I go looking for her?
As I was walking with those thoughts in mind, a man caught my eye, though not because he was doing anything particularly notable.
Geez, that's one conspicuous fucking man.
I didn't like the look in his eyes. I could sense envy and greed glistening in that nasty gaze he had on me. But for some reason, that made me laugh again.
I've really grown up.
In the past, I would have been nervous inside, assuming the worst from just that one glance. But I'd changed a lot since then.
Not that I've gotten softer, but...
I smirked. There was no reason to be frightened by goblins now. Not that he was a goblin, but when you compared combat power alone, there wasn't much of a difference between the two. That was even coming from someone who always assumed the worst of the worst. I couldn't imagine myself being stabbed to death by that basic knife.
Yeah... I'm sure. But why is he still pissing me off?
There was a reason to check him out.
"You." When I suddenly stopped and looked at him, the man straightened up from where he was leaning against the wall, startled. Those beady eyes were now full of vigilance. "Do you have something to say to me?"
"N-No...?"
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
"...I'm sorry."
When the man apologized, Missha punched me in the side. "Bjorn! What are you doing? He didn't do anything wrrrong."
For some reason, I felt like I'd seen a scene like this play out on the streets back home before. When some thug had started a fight with a passerby, his girlfriend had held him back.
I'm telling you, this guy's looks were especially dirty.
"You, what's your name?"
"Hanst Ivan."
"Hanst? Not Hans?" The man trembled at my question. It must have been insulting for some savage to suddenly come up to him and bother him about his name, but this was really important to me. "Is it really Hanst? You haven't made a mistake?"
"I-It really is Hanst..." Hmm, was I actually the one in the wrong here? As I continued staring at him to sort out my thoughts, the man added nervously, "I-It was originally Hans, but I changed it because it was too common."
"...What?" Fuck, no wonder he gave off such a bad vibe. Still, he'd changed his name, so I decided not to say anything and continue on my way. Oh, of course, I should give him some advice before that, though. "Never go back to your original name. Keep living as Hanst. Understood?"
Hanst nodded vigorously. "I-I will."
Dddddd!
That was when the labyrinth began to shake like an earthquake was happening. At the sudden change, Missha looked at me with eyes full of questions. "Bjorn?"
Of course, I knew the answer. There was only one thing in the labyrinth that accompanied this kind of shaking.
"Run!"
A rift would soon be opening before the first day had even reached its end.
Fuck.
Few people knew this, but usually, rifts took at least three days to naturally spawn.
So who was the bastard who did it?
That meant someone had beaten us to the punch by using the very same method I had been planning to use.
"Sometimes, Bjorn, it seems like you have rrreally big ambitions. Is it because you're a barbarian?"
"...Are you being sarcastic?"
"Idiot, I'm trying to say it's cool!"
"Hmm." This kid could be too direct sometimes. Did she think she was a barbarian herself or something?
***
"Did you see the weapon that swordsman was holding earlierrr?"
"You mean the sword made of Orichalcum?"
"Yes, that! So it was Orichalcum. I wonderrr how much it'd cost to make a weapon out of that..."
After that, Missha continued to talk about the team we ran into earlier. She seemed to have a longing to be a high-ranking adventurer. Well, that was a much more positive emotion than jealousy or arrogance, but just longing wouldn't get you anything.
"Stop talking and move your feet."
"Hmph, if anyone hearrrd you, they'd think I wasn't moving at all."
Anyway, as we continued walking eastward, the frequency of our encounters with adventurers gradually increased. In the beginning, like the team we saw earlier, most of them were high-ranking adventurers. As time passed, though, their levels gradually decreased.
I got out my watch. It was 18:57, nineteen hours since the labyrinth opened. That meant we'd spent all day walking. Thanks to that, we were already at the usual starting point. In other words, we had reached the center of the first floor's Crystal Cave. Therefore, there was no need to worry about raising the suspicion of the high-ranking adventurers we ran into anymore.
Huh, I didn't expect this.
When we actually arrived, we still attracted attention.
"Did you just see that? The size of that mace..."
"I think that backpack is also an expandable one."
Adventurers looked at us with envy every time we passed them by. Well, I was sure we looked strange. Instead of hunting on a much higher floor like we appeared to be able to, we were in the middle of the first floor.
"Why is someone like that still here?"
It was around that time that we were looking for a companion for the night. Every time we passed a group of three or four adventurers, they all made comments. It felt a little strange.
There was a time when I was like that too.
When I first entered the labyrinth, like them, I found a night companion and took a break. The problem was that the first person I had met was Hans A.
"Why arrre you laughing all of a sudden?"
"Just thinking of the past."
Remembering how I'd had to pretend I was asleep with Hans A beside me while actually being tired as heck made me laugh. Before meeting Erwen, I really suffered through all sorts of hardships.
Oh, I wonder how she's doing.
Since she had a rich sister, I was sure she was doing fine, but I was curious. She was the first teammate I'd ever had in this world. Should I go looking for her?
As I was walking with those thoughts in mind, a man caught my eye, though not because he was doing anything particularly notable.
Geez, that's one conspicuous fucking man.
I didn't like the look in his eyes. I could sense envy and greed glistening in that nasty gaze he had on me. But for some reason, that made me laugh again.
I've really grown up.
In the past, I would have been nervous inside, assuming the worst from just that one glance. But I'd changed a lot since then.
Not that I've gotten softer, but...
I smirked. There was no reason to be frightened by goblins now. Not that he was a goblin, but when you compared combat power alone, there wasn't much of a difference between the two. That was even coming from someone who always assumed the worst of the worst. I couldn't imagine myself being stabbed to death by that basic knife.
Yeah... I'm sure. But why is he still pissing me off?
There was a reason to check him out.
"You." When I suddenly stopped and looked at him, the man straightened up from where he was leaning against the wall, startled. Those beady eyes were now full of vigilance. "Do you have something to say to me?"
"N-No...?"
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
"...I'm sorry."
When the man apologized, Missha punched me in the side. "Bjorn! What are you doing? He didn't do anything wrrrong."
For some reason, I felt like I'd seen a scene like this play out on the streets back home before. When some thug had started a fight with a passerby, his girlfriend had held him back.
I'm telling you, this guy's looks were especially dirty.
"You, what's your name?"
"Hanst Ivan."
"Hanst? Not Hans?" The man trembled at my question. It must have been insulting for some savage to suddenly come up to him and bother him about his name, but this was really important to me. "Is it really Hanst? You haven't made a mistake?"
"I-It really is Hanst..." Hmm, was I actually the one in the wrong here? As I continued staring at him to sort out my thoughts, the man added nervously, "I-It was originally Hans, but I changed it because it was too common."
"...What?" Fuck, no wonder he gave off such a bad vibe. Still, he'd changed his name, so I decided not to say anything and continue on my way. Oh, of course, I should give him some advice before that, though. "Never go back to your original name. Keep living as Hanst. Understood?"
Hanst nodded vigorously. "I-I will."
Dddddd!
That was when the labyrinth began to shake like an earthquake was happening. At the sudden change, Missha looked at me with eyes full of questions. "Bjorn?"
Of course, I knew the answer. There was only one thing in the labyrinth that accompanied this kind of shaking.
"Run!"
A rift would soon be opening before the first day had even reached its end.
Fuck.
Few people knew this, but usually, rifts took at least three days to naturally spawn.
So who was the bastard who did it?
That meant someone had beaten us to the punch by using the very same method I had been planning to use.