The Three-Legged Monster (3)

"D-Did it die...? The Manster, I mean?"

"......"

At her words, I turned to look at the spot where the headless monster had fallen.

The thing twitched a few more times, then promptly withered up, spewing out one last rope of that sticky fluid.

I lifted my foot just in time, dodging it with practiced ease.

"Filthy bastard right down to its last breath. Looks dead for sure — but do you think this thing might come back to life after being killed?"

"...No. I've never heard of anything like that being sighted on Floor 1."

So those things exist on other floors, then.

I really, really hate that.

But then, someone out there had met an end far more miserable than mine, so I could hardly complain.

"Those women over there — just heads left, was that your party? That's how it looked from the circumstances, anyway."

"...Yes. Though I don't know what they would have thought of me."

"I see."

The sister closed her eyes tightly and folded her hands in what looked like a prayer.

My first thought was that she was a sucker for punishment, but it wasn't as though she was doing it out of ignorance — and cursing the dead any further felt a bit much, even for me.

So we observed a moment of silence for the fallen.

And once the white-hot heat of battle had cooled a little, my next pressing thought surfaced.

"Hey."

"Y-Yes...?"

"Does that monster bastard and I seriously look the same to you?"

The more I thought about it, the more unjust it seemed.

How on earth could anyone confuse a Barbarian with that giant-cock monster?!

Granted, my face was buried under a shaggy beard, and true to my naturalist concept, I'd made my character look about as ragged as possible at creation. But still. You don't just look at a man and see a monster.

BarXXa was a real gentleman about these things.

"I am a Barbarian. A few hundred years... no, a few THOUSAND years from now, that fact will not change."

"B-But..."

"Right. Let's start with that. What do you mean Barbarians went extinct? And what in the hell is a Manster?"

Honestly, I'd already made a rough guess.

Probably a portmanteau of 'Man' and 'Monster.'

But did that mean there were Womonsters out there too? Grotesque creatures stampeding toward you with enormous breasts bouncing and swaying instead of a phallus swinging between their legs.

...That sounds like hell, actually.

But the reality the sister laid out for me was a little more terrible than that.

"A Manster is... a male who died without ever escaping the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth's Darkness got into him and twisted him into a monster."

"...... Is that really the truth of it."

"Yes. On the lower floors, most of them are distinguishable at a glance, but the deeper you go, the more they say you'll find ones that imitate the human form. When I first saw you, sir warrior, I... um, I thought... that is..."

I got the sense the sister was choosing her words slowly, sneaking glances at my face.

So she hadn't completely dropped her suspicions, had she.

"Um, sir warrior? May I ask you just one thing?"

"Go ahead."

"Do you... know what day it is today? Or if not the day — do you at least know what year it is?"

With those words, the sister drew a dagger from somewhere on her person.

Shff.

The blade wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at her own throat.

"I've heard that Mansters with intelligence don't stop at killing women. They commit far more terrible atrocities."

"......"

"I-If it comes to that, I would rather..."

"Cut the nonsense."

Clatter.

At my single gesture, the dagger fell from her hands to the floor.

I kicked it well out of her reach and left it there.

'Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a healer in the Labyrinth, and you're going to end that precious life with your own hands?!'

"Look, I get that you're angling for the virgin appeal. But hugging corpses is not one of my hobbies."

Argh.

There it went again — that brutish beast of a Barbarian ego, shoving its way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of my mouth.

And at the same time, another thought struck me.

'...Wasn't I speaking perfectly normally just a second ago?'

I hastily pulled up my status window to check my temperament.

"......"

"S-Sir warrior...?"

Well.

I'd more or less expected this.

It seemed the fundamental principle governing my body was violence and sex.

Which was Barbarian-like, if nothing else.

Swing your ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fists or your cock freely and you grow stronger — fail to do either, and [Pent-up Lust] piles up until everything goes to hell.

It wasn't much different from Rage Is My Power with sexual content bolted on.

After all, the negative temperament that came bundled with that one had been Rage Disorder.

The only real difference was the numbers on the buff.

'...... Wow.'

The number five might look small, but it absolutely wasn't.

Rage Is My Power raised Strength by 1 for every minute of combat, and that trait had been rated A-tier among the early-game temperaments of the original game.

Labyrinth of Darkness had six stats in total.

Strength / Agility / Constitution / Intelligence / Wisdom / Charisma.

With 10 as the baseline — no bonuses, no penalties — Strength 20 meant you were twice as strong as an average human.

Of course that was a naive calculation; stack on equipment and skills that multiplied your efficiency, and a difference of a single stat point could decide how deep into the Labyrinth you could push.

And a Barbarian starts with Strength 16.

Which meant.

Sixteen plus five was... twenty-one? Twenty-two, maybe?

Mm.

Roughly speaking: getting stupidly strong.

Oh my god.

"You there."

"Y-Yes...?"

"Your name. Say it."

"Ah... I-I'm called Mary. I have no family name. The temple raised me after I was abandoned as an infant, so..."

"I don't care about any of that. So, Mary — I asked you what year it is today, didn't I?"

Thump.

I dropped down cross-legged in front of the sister — no, in front of Mary.

"I don't know."

"...I'm sorry?"

"I said I don't know what year it is. I came to, and this is where I was."

Granted, Lee Sejun the player knew perfectly well that this world was set a thousand years after the original game.

But a Barbarian knowing that would be strange.

I knew it was the kind of answer practically begging to be doubted, but there was nothing to be done about it.

And when that happened, the trick was simple: don't give them time to think — bury them in questions first.

"So. I'd like to hear the rest of what you were saying earlier."

"Yes? What I was, um..."

"You said it wasn't just Barbarians. What exactly happened to all the men of this world?"

"......"

"The Labyrinth I knew was crawling with male adventurers. Sword-swinging bastards, axe-swinging bastards. More of them than I could count sprawled drunk in the gutters. And plenty of Barbarians to march to war shoulder to shoulder with."

That Labyrinth had romance to it.

Granted, Barbarian combat AI was basically nothing but 'charge or charge harder,' so at least one of our party came back a corpse every single run — and to be fair, when I made my serious endgame runs, I did build my party without fellow Barbarians.

Anyway.

"Where did all those bastards go?"

"......"

Mary didn't answer for a long while.

Then, without warning, her gaze shifted over my shoulder.

I didn't bother turning around.

I already knew what was there.

The spot where the monster lay shriveled and collapsed, having spewed its load one final time.

"...You can't mean."

"The male adventurers who once passed through the Labyrinth... are no longer with us. No — even beyond the Labyrinth..."

Mary bowed her head slightly, sorrow in her golden eyes.

"I don't know how far back your memories reach, sir warrior... but in the history books I've read, the male population of the Labyrinth City is recorded as having vanished entirely, 500 years ago."

***

'You have got to be kidding me......'

I wanted to crack open the skulls of whatever production team was living it up in Finland and see what was going on in there.

So THIS is what they meant by a story apocalypse?

If this was the plan, why even bother adding adult content in the first place?

No, more importantly than that.

"That doesn't add up."

"Yes?"

"If the men vanished 500 years ago like you say, then what are you — alive and standing right here? Don't tell me you're actually over five hundred years old behind that face?"

Even an elementary schooler knows that new life comes from a man and a woman joining together.

It wasn't as though she were some child conceived by a holy spirit.

This made no sense at—

"...The Labyrinth Union developed a special magic 500 years ago. Though since the wielders of that magic were all women, the children it produced were all women as well."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And then Mary added one more thing.

"A-And I am twenty years old now...! I completed my coming-of-age rite, and today was supposed to be my very first dive into the Labyrinth...!"

Twenty, huh.

Anyway — magic, was it.

Well, it was a fantasy world; children conceived by magic weren't impossible to believe. It was a thing I could manage to wrap my head around.

Of course, the rational mind of a modern man who'd played the original game still kept spitting out questions about this thousand-years-later Labyrinth — but that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wasn't what mattered right now.

'...So every married woman here is technically a virgin?'

Because that was the kind of thought my Barbarian brain was busily cooking up.

And right alongside it—

Accompanied by a brief crackling sensation.

The blood flowing through my whole body began rushing, all at once, toward one very particular region.

Back in the Labyrinth City, the first thing on my shopping list was absolutely going to be underwear.

Wait — would they even sell men's underwear anymore?

Maybe I should learn to sew.

"U-Um, sir warrior......?"

"......What."

I could guess exactly why she'd called out to me.

She was probably about to ask me to get rid of that grotesque thing dangling between my legs.

After all, men had supposedly been gone for five hundred years, and apparently everything that even retained the 'shape' of a man had become one of those monsters.

Maybe I should ask her to hand over that cloth she's got wrapped on her head.

But.

What came out of her mouth was a little different from what I'd expected.

"I-Is that... is that really the thing they call a... c-cock......?"

"......?"

Mary had begun staring intently at the thing hanging between my legs.

Her cheeks flushed deep crimson — and yet her eyes were wide, brimming with pure, unfiltered curiosity.