Chapter 25: Back to the Labyrinth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 25: Back to the Labyrinth
It had already been eight days since my showdown with Meldini in the lobby of the Magic University.
In that time, the labyrinth city of Sohen had been abuzz with talk of the university's new student, but that kind of gossip always fades quickly.
People returned to their own struggles, and the main topic of conversation in Sohen shifted.
It was now…
“The Labyrinth entry gate will open in one hour!”
The opening of the Labyrinth.
*
What exactly is the Labyrinth?
That’s a mystery that could never be solved, not in the game and not in reality.
All that was known was that the Labyrinth existed long before the city of Sohen was ever built.
Or, more accurately, the stairs leading to it existed.
Those stairs had been buried deep underground until they were excavated. Descend about fifteen meters, and you’ll find a small, open space where a gate periodically appears.
Beyond that gate lies the 1st floor of the Labyrinth.
“Yernil!”
“Yeees!”
“Are you ready?”
“Yes!”
Today, we were heading back in.
“Aimus!”
“Yes.”
“Ready?”
“Let’s go!”
To be honest, I fucking hate the idea of going.
But what choice do I have? If we stay outside for two full weeks, the Labyrinth will erupt.
“Back Attack!”
“Gaaaaah!”
“You ready?”
“Grrrr!”
To rally my flagging spirits, I hyped up each of my party members one by one.
Let’s do this.
We’ll go in, extend our two-week lifeline, resurrect Back Attack, and come back.
Unlike last time, when the Magic University shoved me in against my will, this time we’re well-equipped and have a full party, right?
I led my companions to the Labyrinth Management Office counter and completed our registration.
“The Labyrinth entry gate will open in ten minutes!”
I felt a little nervous.
Yernil probably did too… huh?
“Yernil, you’re not nervous?”
Surprisingly, she looked completely calm.
Was this really the same Yernil who had a fit and bawled her eyes out when the goblin stabbed Fatty?
“I just have to listen to you, Caleb, right?” Yernil replied nonchalantly. “We’re just going to the 1st floor, aren’t we? Last time, we had nothing, but we made it out alive just by doing what you said. It should be even easier this time.”
Hmm.
Sorry, Yernil.
We’re not going to the 1st floor.
The place where the Sanctuary of Souls is located is what’s known as a “point-five floor.”
The Labyrinth’s Abyss has hidden spaces between each level. The 1.5th floor between the 1st and 2nd floors. The 2.5th floor between the 2nd and 3rd. And so on.
The game’s users called them the point-five floors, and the Sanctuary of Souls is on one of them.
It’s a shame I can’t tell you beforehand, since it’s possessor knowledge.
“Just a moment, I need to see my wife and kids…”
Aimus nudged my shoulder and pointed toward the entrance of the Management Office.
The Monk’s wife was there, carrying one baby on her back and holding the hands of two small children.
I guess she was worried. Her husband, an aging, third-rate adventurer, had disbanded his party and retired, only to go back into the Labyrinth again.
I get it.
“Go ahead. We’ll go down to the waiting room first.”
“Alright.”
Leaving Aimus behind, I led Yernil and Back Attack down into the basement.
We passed the elevator reserved for parties that had cleared the 2nd floor or higher and stopped in front of the 1st-floor waiting room.
The stairs were inside.
I remembered being shoved in here on my first day as a possessor, part of a four-person slave party, like cattle being led to the slaughter.
Back then, all I could think was that my life was completely screwed. This time, though…
Click.
Praying that nothing would go wrong, I opened the door to the waiting room.
*
What the hell.
A slightly unexpected scene unfolded before me.
Four people were already inside the thirty-square-meter waiting room. They were sitting side-by-side on a bench, and the way they stared at us was as shady as Meldini trying to lure in a possessor.
Who the hell are these guys?
We were waiting for Aimus, but their party of four was already assembled. What were they waiting for?
The gate was already open. Why hadn’t they gone down the stairs?
No way.
It couldn’t be.
My heart pounded with a sense of foreboding.
“…”
Among the four, a human warrior in heavy armor and carrying a two-handed sword whispered something to a canine beastman.
He covered his mouth as he spoke.
I covered my own mouth and whispered to Yernil.
“What did they just say?”
“‘They don’t look like they have much on them.’”
Ah, fuck, seriously.
Why is it that my bad feelings are never wrong?
Marauders.
In other games, finding a good item or gearing up would be a simple cause for joy, but the Labyrinth’s Abyss is a little different.
A party whose possessions are worth more than their combat power is likely to become a target for marauders.
Let me try to guess what was going through their heads.
They probably had conversations like this over the past week:
‘I heard one of the Magic University’s slave mages made a fortune this time. He formed a new party and bought brand-new gear for all his members.’
‘He supposedly bought a full set for the elf archer—helmet, armor, boots, bow, quiver, and even special arrows.’
‘As for Back Attack, the Magic University stripped him bare and sold everything the moment he came out, since he’s an exit boss. So maybe the new guy bought new equipment for Back Attack, too.’
‘He’s an undead, so he probably won’t be wearing or holding anything, but the party leader might have a dagger or something for him in his backpack.’
‘They’re going to resurrect Back Attack, right? They’ll need him to pull his weight when they clear the exit room again, so they must have brought gear for him.’
‘Even if they don’t have that, they’ve got to have a resurrection scroll in that backpack, right? How much is that worth alone?’
‘What’s their party’s combat power?’
‘A third-rate Monk who’s the dregs of the adventurer world, and an undead? That means two of them are basically useless, right?’
‘Wow, my mouth is watering already!’
…Something like that, probably.
These kinds of guys were a common nuisance in the game, which is why I’d deliberately timed our arrival to be the first ones through the gate. I never expected them to be lying in wait.
So diligent of them.
Did the compass get leaked?
Probably not.
If it had, the caliber of marauders waiting for us would be much higher than this.
Besides, I’ve never shown the compass to anyone, never spoken of it, and neither would Meldini.
As a professor at the Magic University, he’s well aware of the trouble marauders cause for adventurers. He wouldn’t carelessly leak information that would make me a target.
“…”
The four of them began to scan me, Yernil, and Back Attack from head to toe.
They were assessing our level of equipment and checking what consumables we might have, trying to simulate the battle in their heads before they attacked.
It felt disgusting.
I began to analyze their party in turn.
A human warrior in decent plate armor with a two-handed sword, and a canine beastman who looked like a rogue. Nothing special so far. With Aimus in front, they’d have a hard time breaking through. And the dwarf was…
A puppeteer?
That’s a bit tricky.
Judging by his gear, he looked quite skilled. Another point of concern was that they had a mage, too.
“Hey.”
Their mage greeted me.
She looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties. A pretty human woman, holding a wand in one hand and fidgeting with it like she had anxiety.
“Hello.”
“Are you a university student?”
“Yes.”
“I got expelled.”
She cackled by herself, and her party members snickered along with her.
Just like in the game, there were plenty of mages out there who weren’t affiliated with the Magic University.
“What’s in the bag?” the woman asked, pointing her wand at my backpack.
“Why are you curious?”
“I’m just worried about you newbies, is all. In case you’re carrying something expensive. The Labyrinth is full of marauders, you know.”
“…”
“You’ve probably never met any, right? They don’t bother with slave parties since there’s nothing to gain. But you might run into some this time.”
The mage grinned and held out her hand.
“Want your big sis to hold onto anything expensive for you?”
“I don’t have anything expensive, so I’m fine. Thanks for the advice. The gate should be open, why don’t you go on ahead?”
“You’re not going down?”
“We’re still waiting for one of our party members.”
“The Monk? The one who’s all brawn and no speed?”
See?
They’d analyzed our entire party and were lying in wait, not even bothering to hide it.
“If you received an important mission from a professor, you should have been more careful about your frontline, don’t you think? The Labyrinth is a dangerous place.”
“…”
“I heard Hijikata from the 3rd floor offered to join you, even though the pay wasn’t great. You should have jumped at the chance and asked someone like him to lead your party.”
“Caleb…”
Yernil, who had been so confident just moments before, instantly shrank like a frightened chick.
She had sensed the ominous atmosphere from these bastards. She kept glancing at me, looking extremely anxious.
“It’s okay.”
I gave her shoulder a light pat.
“How sweet.”
The other party snickered again.
“Our dwarf is single, so he gets jealous. He might just turn into a marauder. Don’t provoke him too much.”
They laughed amongst themselves again, then abruptly stopped.
Because our team’s muscle-bound monster of a Monk had returned.
Of course, they probably already knew Aimus was a workout fiend, but…
“What is that?”
They must have been seeing that weapon for the first time.
I guess so.
Until now, only the talkative mage—who was giving Paladin Lizard a run for his money—had been speaking while the other three kept their mouths shut. Now, all three of them were gaping.
“What kind of Monk… uses a weapon…”
Our Monk had returned carrying a very large, thick, and beautiful steel greatstaff. It was two meters long and, with a little exaggeration, as thick as Yernil’s wrist.
“Is that… is that a weapon?” the human warrior asked with a frown.
“Yes,” Aimus replied.
“Originally, monks who train in Kalung at Mount Dalai learn to use a staff from a young age.”
“But all of them only use their fists.”
“Due to a matter of religious doctrine, it’s policy to only use fists after coming of age.”
“But you’re allowed to use a steel staff?”
“That’s because I’m a monk who has broken his vows.”
Which is why he was married and had three kids.
“For this adventure, I’ve decided to accept my party leader’s suggestion and use this.”
In the game, you had to succeed on a high-difficulty persuasion roll to get a Kalung training monk to wield a greatstaff.
This time, though, he just took it when I offered it.
He was only worried about whether he’d be any good with it, since it had been so long.
“Our party leader is a very smart man.”
Even if he was a third-rate adventurer from the lowest rungs, his age and experience couldn’t be ignored.
“Smart enough that we can turn the tables on any half-assed marauders.”
He had recognized these guys as marauders in an instant.
As expected of my man, the Monk! You may not have any hair, but you’ve got sharp senses!
“…”
The mage gave a nasty, smug smile.
“Good luck.”
And with that, they headed down the stairs first.
*
“I didn’t figure it out from the atmosphere. I overheard their conversation outside,” the Monk said as we entered the Labyrinth.
“They were being so openly hostile.”
“Why were they doing that?”
Yernil’s face was clouded with worry.
“Maybe they were actually worried about us! Warning us to be careful of marauders!”
At the same time, she was running on wishful thinking.
“No way. The looks on their faces, they were practically licking their lips.”
“B-but if they were going to rob us, there would be no reason to create such a threatening atmosphere, right? If I were in a marauder party, I would have been nice to us. If you threaten someone, they’ll just deliberately avoid you in the Labyrinth.”
She had a point, I guess.
But that’s what third-rate marauders do, Yernil.
“They threatened us on purpose,” Aimus noted.
“Why?”
“So that we’d be trembling in fear, on guard against everything, and exhaust ourselves.”
“Ah…”
And they could track us whenever they wanted.
Why?
Because the canine beastman’s racial trait was scent tracking.
No wonder he was sniffing the air like crazy the moment I entered the waiting room. He must have been memorizing our scents.
“Marauders are most dangerous on the lower floors. There are more of them, too,” explained Aimus, the leader of a third-rate party with a knack for getting robbed.
“As you go deeper, the adventurers are more experienced, so there’s a certain level of assurance. But the lower floors are a melting pot of all sorts of people, so there are more marauders.”
He was right, and there was one more reason: on the lower floors, robbing other adventurers was more profitable than exploring the Labyrinth.
“…”
Yernil was completely on edge.
“Yernil.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be so scared.”
There was no need to be so tense already. They were a fairly skilled party, true, but we were pretty solid now, too.
If they attacked us head-on, they’d have a hard time getting past Aimus. If they tried to trail us, Yernil would spot them.
And if a fight broke out, I’d flip the hourglass and use Dust Explosion.
“Let’s focus on our adventure.”
Worrying ourselves sick and wearing ourselves out was exactly what they wanted.
“Grrrr.”
Back Attack seemed to agree with me, trudging forward with purpose.
*
Reality is always less plausible than fiction.
Have you ever heard that saying?
I took that to heart ever since Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk had a keyboard battle on Twitter and challenged each other to an IRL fight.
But I didn’t see this coming.
“Please, please!”
It was the mage from before.
She was now bleeding profusely from her head, trembling as she begged and pleaded before us.
“Save me!”
She was on her knees, wringing her hands.
We had been exploring the Labyrinth for about two hours with Back Attack in the lead when we suddenly ran into her.
She came running toward us from up ahead, screaming, and when Aimus yelled at her to stop, she actually did, and began to beg through her tears.
The reason she was in this state was…
“We were attacked…”
The leisurely confidence she’d had in the waiting room was gone, replaced by pure terror.
“It’s a party from the 2nd floor! They’re chasing me right now, please!”
“Don’t give me that shit!”
I’m not falling for that, you bitch.
“How can we trust you? Weren’t you trying to rob us, too?”
“That was…”
I expected her to deny it, but the mage admitted it readily.
“I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry…” she said, sobbing her heart out.
She tore at her hair as if she deeply regretted taunting and threatening us in the waiting room.
“We were wrong. Just let us live, please! Caleb! I’ll fight on your side! Please!”
“Get back!”
“I’ll die if I go back!”
“…”
“Caleb…”
Even Aimus, an expert on being robbed, was at a loss for what to do. Yernil had… shit, she’d already lowered her bow. Yernil! Get a grip!
No.
I’m the problem here. I need to get a grip.
Caleb, you crazy bastard!
Why is this mage still standing in front of us? This is so damn suspicious!
What if this were the game?
In the game, we wouldn’t have exchanged this many words.
I would have chanted Lightning Shock long ago and either killed her or driven her off.
Developer difficulty truly is the highest of this god-forsaken game’s many difficulty levels.
This is so different from the game.
I’m not looking down from a quarter-view perspective. I’m seeing it directly, in first person—a face covered in blood, sweat, and tears, begging me to save her. I can’t bring myself to chant the spell so easily while looking at that face.
Even though my head knows it’s the safest path.
“I’ll count to three.”
But I have to keep my head on straight.
“Go back, now.”
A moment’s hesitation and misplaced sympathy here is an express ticket to hell.
Trusting someone so carelessly is insane.