Into the Second Layer
After leaving the shelter on the first floor, I made my way toward the portal at the southern end. “By the way, everyone did a great job. I heard most people clear the first floor pretty quickly, but we seem to keep running into weirdos.”
‘Should I delay my next entry by a few days?’ …No. If anything, once the first day passes, there might be people waiting on the first floor to ambush and rob others from behind. It’s not like I’ll run into Karik-type guys every time.
“Yeah… but you said the same thing, sis. No matter how many you catch, those kinds of people just keep showing up.” Yeriel shook her head. “The fight with the human hunters last time was because of me, but even without that, running into trash like that inside the Labyrinth seems unavoidable.”
She scratched her cheek and smiled. “…Still, we got through the bad stuff safely, so maybe good things are coming our way? Hehe.”
She had a point. Two days after returning, when I’d been talking with Ivelin, I’d glossed over some details while explaining that I was a Returner. A few days later, once Yeriel’s training ended, I’d casually brought it up with Ivelin—that the real reason I’d clashed with the human hunters was because of a paper related to Yeriel that their leader had pulled from his backpack, and that it involved my master as well.
Ivelin, who had been furious and radiating killing intent at first, calmed down and said:
—There’s no helping it. Yeriel just has to get stronger. Unless I spoil her rotten by decking her out in A-rank and S-rank items… she’ll have to either grow strong herself or quit adventuring and stay quietly in the 3rd District where I can keep an eye on her.
—Human hunters, losers, professional looters, criminal organizations? If I felt like it, I could wipe out every one I could reach. But at my level of position and power, the backlash would be too severe. I already drew a lot of attention recently after wiping out one of the human hunters’ organized bases. I even had to make several trips into the 1st District because of it.
—Right now… I have too many things I need to protect. Of course, Yeriel is still my top priority. So Aren, grow alongside her and keep her safe. I’m asking you as both her teacher and her older sister.
…After saying that, she added that she wasn’t going to just stand by—she’d make sure no one could touch Yeriel inside the city. Still, whether more people would come after us in the Labyrinth using Yeriel or Ivelin as bait was another question. Even without that, among the countless adventurers, there were bound to be more who’d pick a fight or cause trouble.
‘So the answer really is to get stronger as fast as possible…’
After that, we kept walking while staying alert and chatting about various things. For example, Yeriel asked about the woman who had been following us, saying she wanted to help as a priestess, or at least offer some comfort. I hadn’t wanted to listen, but apparently the woman had come to Labyrinth City looking for work, barely scraped by in the outskirts of the 7th District, then one day stepped into the 8th District and was kidnapped without a trace, sold into illegal slavery, and forced into that party.
They kept saying the 8th District was abandoned land, but it wasn’t just lawless—it was completely insane. An involuntary sigh escaped me.
Anyway, after walking steadily for several hours—
“We’re here.”
Two portals stood before us. Yellow and blue. Until now, we’d only ever used the yellow one that led back to the city.
‘Finally, my first time going up a floor in the Great Labyrinth.’
[Chaos encourages you, saying the real chaos is only just beginning.]
The blue portal leading to the next floor somehow looked especially radiant. This wasn’t the time for that. I looked at her and slowly opened my mouth.
“You can use that portal to return to the city now. Ah, before that, could you come here for a moment?”
She nodded and carefully stepped forward. Once she stood in front of me, I started pulling several items from my backpack: a pouch containing ten silver coins, plus some of the looted equipment that wasn’t worth much but was lightweight and roughly the right size.
If someone saw me right now, they might click their tongue and call me soft, or curse me for being a pushover. But since I’d already saved her, I wanted to at least help her live like a person until she was out of sight. What kind of thoughts had she been having in that hellish situation that made her tell me to run? If she’d been caught, it wouldn’t have ended with just a beating.
Well. I probably wouldn’t find out, whether it was a moment ago, now, or in the future.
‘Goodwill for goodwill. Malice for malice.’
Thinking back on the adventurers I’d met so far, while there were quite a few bad people, there had definitely been good ones too. Derick, Ivelin, Berkel, Hewton, the guild master. This wasn’t some act of kindness without reason. It was just… personal satisfaction. Yeah, the satisfaction of remembering that back in my lower-floor adventurer days, I’d once helped someone like her.
“Well then, take care.”
“Please don’t die—live a long life!”
“Stay strong.”
We each said a few words as we watched her walk toward the portal. She bowed deeply, tears streaming down her face.
“Th-thank… thank you.”
I simply nodded in silence. ‘Yeah. This is it.’ I was starting to understand why people did good deeds when they had the leeway.
With a hum, the yellow portal rippled once, and the woman’s figure vanished without a trace.
She was gone. Somehow, I felt lighter. The city and the Labyrinth were both ridiculously vast, so we probably wouldn’t meet again.
“Alright, let’s forget about her and get going ourselves.”
If we kept standing in front of the portal, we might run into other adventurers and cause more trouble.
“Yeah!”
“The second floor… it’s my first time. They said the areas split up starting from the second floor, right?”
“That’s right! I’ve only been to the second floor once, and it’s not a memory I want to recall. Regardless of difficulty, I got stuck in a sector with disgusting monsters.”
When entering the portal to the next floor, I’d heard that because we’d entered the Great Labyrinth while in physical contact, some kind of binding state was applied. That meant we didn’t have to hold hands or stay glued together inside the Labyrinth, nor did we have to move at the exact same time.
“Let’s go. To the second floor.”
Just in case something happened the moment we arrived on the second floor, I stepped toward the portal first.
***
With a hum—
“Ugh.”
‘I almost landed on my butt right after arriving. That would’ve been embarrassing.’
Traveling through a portal never felt good no matter how many times I did it, but the layer portal to the next floor felt especially strange. The entrance portal to the Labyrinth stretched my body before dropping me somewhere on the first floor, while the escape portal gave the sensation of floating through empty space. The layer transfer, however, felt like some massive being had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, lifted me up, and thrown me down onto the next floor.
Since I knew nothing about space-time, it just felt novel for now. ‘And the nausea is a bonus.’
Anyway, we’d finally reached the second floor.
“Whew. Let’s light the torches first.”
After taking a breath to steady myself, I heard a voice from the empty space right beside me.
“Aaaah!”
Yeriel was falling while flailing her arms, though the height wasn’t very high. ‘Even someone experienced with layer portals gets flustered, huh.’
Thud. I quickly moved underneath and caught her before she hit the ground.
“Ehehe. That’s weird, it felt different from last time.”
She smiled awkwardly when our eyes met. I gently set her down and waited for Lumia, who came next.
“Oh.”
I let out a small sound of admiration as Lumia landed in a perfectly balanced posture, probably thanks to her beastkin nature.
“Hm? Why are you both staring at me like that?”
“No, it’s just impressive how you stayed completely steady even after using the portal.”
“Eep. …It’s nothing special, but hearing it out loud is embarrassing.”
Leaving the flustered Lumia behind, I looked around. Drip. Drip. ‘Water droplets?’
I hadn’t noticed right after landing on the second floor, but when I looked closely and listened, water was dripping from the ceiling one drop at a time. Focusing my other senses, I could feel the air was unusually humid. The damp atmosphere, which seemed to dull the body just by standing still, brushed against my skin and made me uncomfortable.
“Ugh, it’s so damp.”
Just like Yeriel said, everything felt unnecessarily moist and heavy. The terrain was similar to the first floor, but the environment was humid, and moisture seeped from the walls everywhere. Combining the visible characteristics… this was probably the wetland sector?
Though it was still a typical Labyrinth terrain full of walls, unlike the weak monsters like ratmen, kobolds, and woodmen, the monsters that appeared in this sector were said to be slimes, cave mermen, cave snakes, and their higher species, the full serpents.
‘Darn, I was hoping for the beast sector. Should I be glad it’s not the insect sector?’
While the first floor was divided into north, south, and central sectors, the second floor wasn’t divided simply by direction. Instead, it was split into sectors with completely different types of monsters. The wetland sector I’d just mentioned. The beast sector, led by goblins and hounds with occasional gray wolves and black boars. The insect sector, featuring beetles, giant maggots, and venomous centipedes. There were three sectors in total.
Just like the portal we’d come through had been at the southern end, this time we’d also need to head for the portal at the end of each sector. Well, even if the sectors were divided and higher species appeared, it was still only the second floor. Unless we were in a specific section, it was said to be only slightly harder than the first floor.
‘As long as we’re careful about other adventurers, we should be able to reach the next floor without issues. Let’s stay sharp.’
Just as I was organizing my thoughts and about to pull out the map and compass, Lumia grabbed my sleeve and spoke quickly.
“Aren, monsters. They’re approaching fast.”
“Can’t be helped. Everyone, prepare for battle!”
Along with the sound of feet pattering against the ground, a group of monsters came charging. Those were cave mermen! Though their eyesight had deteriorated to the point where they might as well be blind, they were humanoid monsters with highly developed hearing and smell instead. Their distinctive features included shriveled skin, a repulsive face with protruding eyes and mouth, webbed hands and feet typical of aquatic creatures, gills and scales resembling fish, a tail, and fins on their back.
Points to watch out for when fighting them: excellent mobility that let them traverse terrain on all fours, paralytic poison in their claws, and their aggressive, reckless attack patterns!
“Kreeeek!”
A merman at the front let out a shriek and lunged straight at me. I gripped the handle of my greatsword tightly. Alright. Let’s see how these new monsters fare.