Chapter 35: The Tin Knight and the Mysterious Underground Labyrinth (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 35: The Tin Knight and the Mysterious Underground Labyrinth (4)
The previous Emperor of the Empire, the Iron Blood Emperor, is said to have evaluated the existence of adventurers as follows:
“The dregs of society.”
“They do not take up the scythe to farm, nor do they set out on ships to catch fish. They do not work the spinning wheel to make clothes, nor do they guide carts to transport goods.”
“If we speak of groups that only consume without producing, the military is much the same, but at least they follow the nation's command and, if need be, can sustain themselves through means like military farming. Furthermore, they protect the nation from foreign enemies, and their very existence functions as a deterrent that keeps the peace from faltering.”
“But what of adventurers? Far from stabilizing society, they foment chaos. They stride through the streets brandishing all manner of deadly weapons, making the common folk tremble in fear. They flaunt whatever wealth they happen to stumble upon, making those who sweat and toil honestly feel a sense of deprivation. The harm they cause by leading foolish youths, who mistake this for something ‘cool,’ down the wrong path is also beyond words.”
“Some may defend them, citing the heroic deeds of a few adventurers. But I ask in return: among all the riffraff scattered across the continent, how many are truly worthy of respect? If only one in a hundred is a jewel and the other ninety-nine are trash, how is that any different from a mere pile of garbage?”
“The freedom adventurers clamor for is licentiousness. A society that reveres adventurers proves the incompetence of its rulers. Therefore, what I have to say to them is simple.”
“Submit to the nation’s control. Take responsibility for the missions you are given. That is the only way for you wretches to prove you are not trash, but worthy subjects of the Empire.”
Though the Iron Blood Emperor’s hatred for adventurers was known to all, it was, ironically, the Emperor himself who brought about a great revival in the adventurer industry.
Before the Iron Blood Emperor, the Adventurers Guild was not one massive organization, but a collection of separate armed groups rooted in their respective regions. There were no standards for quest fees, nor was there a proper ranking system for adventurers.
It was common for adventurers from different guilds to clash violently, and it was not unusual for an adventurer who failed a quest to transfer to a guild in another region to avoid paying compensation.
Since there was no cooperation between the guilds, it was a frequent occurrence for adventurers in Region A to be idle with no work, while in Region B, quest fees skyrocketed due to a shortage of manpower.
The Iron Blood Emperor forcibly reformed the adventurer industry.
To be more precise, only those who prostrated themselves, abandoning all their existing interests and regional power struggles, survived. The rest were all mercilessly crushed.
Clients no longer needed to wander through various regions to find a guild that would accept their requests. Adventurers, in order to maintain their high ranks, had to be courteous to their clients and carry out their quests with diligence.
Those who were indistinguishable from bandits were filtered out, and the rampant culture of backstabbing and kill-stealing among adventurers vanished. As a result, the overall quality of adventurers was greatly elevated.
The winds of reform were blowing, and all that was left was for the entire adventurer industry to soar.
At least, that’s how it should have been.
“…Hey, don’t you think the atmosphere in the guild has been a little weird lately?”
At the words of Kumara, the ranger and party leader, the mage Magia replied grumpily.
“Weird? What’s weird?”
“I just get the feeling the quality of the new recruits has been getting worse and worse lately.”
“Why? You gonna start sounding like an old geezer, complaining about how the newbies these days have no skill or sense?”
“No, it’s not that kind of problem. I’m talking about the overall atmosphere. Guys who’ve clearly done things that deserve punishment get off with a light reprimand, while on the other hand, guys who haven’t shown anything special get promoted strangely fast. What should I call it… hmm.”
Kumara, hesitating for a moment, frowned and said.
“It feels like… we’re slowly reverting to the ‘old guild’ days Senior Alphaul used to talk about.”
Magia ran a hand through her long green hair and replied.
“No way, you’re just imagining things. With the Empire watching us with its eyes wide open, if we went back to the days of guilds secretly fighting each other with nobles as their backers, like Senior Alphaul said, we’d be crushed in an instant. This time, the entire profession of ‘adventurer’ might just disappear from the Empire.”
“That’s why it’s an even bigger problem. If it’s just one or two guys causing trouble, we can just kick them out, but if the whole guild starts to rot, we’ll get hurt too.”
Magia fell silent, an unpleasant expression on her face as if imagining a distasteful future.
Taking her place, the third member of the party, the warrior Sitar, spoke up.
“Assuming the leader’s feeling is right, what are we supposed to do?”
“What do we do? Well, that’s—”
Kumara faltered.
Magia cut in, finishing his sentence.
“Do? We do nothing. We just live as quietly as mice.”
“Why do you have to put it like that?”
“If we were dealing with idiots causing trouble for others, we could at least beat them up, but meddling with personnel management means the culprits are in the guild’s upper echelons. What can a bunch of silver-rank nobodies do?”
“Hey, who are you calling nobodies? Silver rank is a big deal out in the world, you know?”
“That’s just a big deal in their own little world. If you’ve got a problem, hurry up and earn some merits to become gold rank. More specifically, stop chatting and get back to what we were doing.”
“Tch. You just can’t stand to see a guy take a break.”
Grumbling, Kumara picked up his lockpicking set again.
“But seriously, if they’re going to make us find a hidden room, shouldn’t they at least let us get the reward inside easily? How can the chest inside also be locked?”
Underground Labyrinth, 28th floor.
It had been great up to the point where they found a secret room while searching for monsters to get the materials required on the 25th floor.
There were even three large treasure chests inside the room, so it was only natural for the corners of Kumara’s party’s mouths to curl up.
The problem was that all three chests were firmly locked.
Kumara had managed to open the two chests decorated with bronze and silver, but he was struggling with the last golden chest, unable to open it at all.
Finally, with a crack, another lockpick broke, and Kumara fell backward onto the floor.
“Argh, I can’t do it! That’s it! I give up!!”
Magia stared with a pathetic look at her party leader, who was now lying on the floor and throwing a tantrum like a child, and finally let out a sigh.
“Sitar. Can you lift that thing, chest and all, and move it?”
Sitar, who had been trying to move the chest around, shook his head.
“No good. It won’t budge. This thing only looks like a chest; it’s completely fused with the ground.”
“Well, nothing we can do then. Let’s go back.”
“And leave the treasure chest?”
“What choice do we have? This guy broke all the lockpicks.”
At Magia’s remark, Kumara flared up.
“Anyone would think I made a mistake on purpose! I opened the other two just fine, didn’t I? The security devices in this labyrinth are on a whole other level; most rogues or rangers would have a hard time opening even one!”
“Quiet down. You want to advertise that there’s a hidden room here?”
Sitar, who had been listening to their argument, made a suggestion.
“If skill won’t work, how about we just try to break the chest?”
“Hmm.”
After a moment’s thought, Kumara shook his head.
“Let’s not. There’s a high chance we’ll damage the contents while breaking the chest, and the whole ‘if I can’t have it, no one can’ attitude… that’s a pretty ugly look for an adventurer, don’t you think?”
Magia shrugged as well.
“Well, I don’t know when this industry ever had such professional ethics, but I agree with not breaking it. There’s a chance the chest will still be here safely when we come back next time. Besides, the number of teams that can make it this deep is—”
Magia’s words, which would have ended with “rare,” were cut short.
Shh, Kumara had signaled for silence.
It was just after that they heard someone’s voice from far away.
《This way! At a glance, this looks like a simple dead end, but you can actually pass through the wall! The treasure chests inside are securely locked, so I had to leave them unopened!》
The three of them froze with tension.
Someone was pointing out the exact location of their secret room.
And then.
Clank.
Someone emerged, passing through the wall that had seemed solid just a moment ago.
Clank.
Metal armor that covered its entire body from head to toe glinted dully in the torchlight.
Through the slit of its helm, an eerie blue light flickered like a will-o'-the-wisp.
The one-handed sword and shield it held seemed as natural as parts of its own body, and even its slightest movements carried an extraordinary pressure and spirit.
The warrior Sitar swallowed hard.
As the party’s vanguard, he could instinctively sense the difference in skill between himself and the knight before him.
‘I can’t win. At best, I could only stall for time.’
Sitar somehow suppressed the urge to draw his axe.
The opponent had not yet shown any hostile movements, and recklessly brandishing a weapon in such a situation could itself become the spark that ignited a battle.
Though they hadn’t grasped the opponent’s strength as instantly as Sitar had, Kumara and Magia also sensed the unusual atmosphere.
A silent standoff continued for a few seconds.
Kumara spoke up.
“A-hem, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Kumara, an adventurer who mainly operates out of the Adventurers Guild Schwartz Branch. These are my companions. And you are?”
The knight simply stared at them without a word.
As the three remained on high alert, a new figure emerged from the wall.
It was a blue-eyed witch dressed in black clothes reminiscent of a crow.
The witch opened her mouth.
“Dorothea. Exploration agent for the Halder Company. We were planning to rest here for a bit. What about you? If you’re planning on staying, please go somewhere else.”
“It’s fine. We were about to leave anyway.”
As Kumara took the lead and left the room, the other two followed behind him.
Once they were outside the wall, a golden-haired girl who was pulling some kind of cart bowed her head to them in greeting.
After returning the greeting silently, the three of them quickly walked away from the spot.
They walked, and walked, and walked.
Only after they had completely moved to the next floor did the three of them finally open their mouths, which had been clamped shut.
“Phew! M-my heart was about to jump out of my chest.”
“Good thing they didn’t seem hostile either.”
“…A secret room is useful for avoiding monsters, but the drawback is that you can’t see if someone else is entering until they’re already in. We’ll have to be more careful next time.”
After voicing their respective thoughts, the three began to chatter about the mysterious party they had just encountered.
“That knight just now seemed incredibly dangerous. What was its deal?”
Magia shook her head at Kumara’s question.
“That wasn’t a person. It’s a model I’ve never seen before, but it’s a type of magic doll. The mage who came in after was probably its master.”
“For real? No wonder its gaze was so murderous.”
“Murderous? I thought it was creepy because I couldn’t feel any emotion from it at all.”
“Was it? Maybe it was. Ah, but the girls in their party were pretty. Though one of them had a fashion sense that seemed a bit dated.”
“And what was with that cart? It was covered with a cloth so I couldn’t see the contents, but it looked pretty full.”
“Maybe it was treasure?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It was probably just monster byproducts at best.”
They continued to speculate, but in the end, they couldn’t find an answer.
They had only brushed past each other for less than three minutes, so there was a limit to the information they could gather.
“Whatever. Let’s just head back.”
Just as Kumara came to that conclusion and was about to head up, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Huh? Come to think of it, whose voice was it that guided them to our room?’
It wasn’t the voice of the mage named Dorothea, so she was out. The knight wasn’t a person but a magic doll, so it was out. That left the golden-haired girl, but there was a bit of a disconnect between her appearance and the way the voice spoke.
‘In the first place, to know there’s a secret room there, you’d have to be a pretty seasoned adventurer. Which means they were able to get key information from an adventurer like that. The Halder Company. Can’t take them lightly.’
*
“Achoo!”
“Father, are you alright?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. I should probably sleep a bit warmer tonight.”
“You should also drink plenty of water. By the way, it seems like Lady Adel and the other two have been inside for quite a while, but they haven’t come out.”
“Haha, exploring a labyrinth is no easy task. Especially for beginners with no experience. If they were lucky and had a smooth run, I wonder if they might have reached the 4th or 5th floor by now?”
“What’s the lowest floor?”
“It must have been the 30th floor. The scale itself is enormous, but the monsters below the 20th floor are said to be so dangerous that even silver-rank adventurers have to risk their lives. I hope they don’t push themselves too hard…”
*
Clack.
15 hours have passed since entering the labyrinth.
The Tin Knight’s party.
Reached the 30th floor.