Chapter 29: The 1.5th Floor
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29: The 1.5th Floor
The Labyrinth contains countless staircases.
Most lead down one full floor at a time, but secret staircases like this one, which descend only half a floor, also exist.
I first discovered the 1.5th Floor using a similar method when I played the game.
I sent an undead that could track souls ahead of me and followed it. Then, I stopped at the point where the undead could no longer find the path and began to wander.
When I came back after meeting a friend for a meal, the secret staircase was open.
Descending the secret stairs leads to a small, enclosed space like a boiler room. A gate shimmers on the wall directly ahead.
“Beyond this gate is the 1.5th Floor.”
I gave them a simple explanation of what we would face on the 1.5th Floor and a quick operations briefing.
“Alright, ready?”
I hoped everything would go according to plan.
With a silent prayer, we stepped through the gate.
*
‘It’s a village.’
Yernil whispered, her voice low.
It was just like the game. The ruins of an ancient, incredibly old village appeared before us.
Haunted-looking, dilapidated buildings lined the road, and a tattered flag fluttered alone in the square.
Not even a single rat could be seen in the ruined village.
Whether it was the 1.5th, 2.5th, or 3.5th floor, all the in-between spaces shared this kind of scenery.
Just as the Labyrinth was said to have devoured gods, had it once swallowed villages too?
‘I can’t hear anything.’
Yernil whispered again.
The reason we were speaking so quietly was because of the monsters.
The Sentries of the Boundary that appeared on the 1.5th Floor.
The first time I entered this place in the game, I got a game over in just an hour because of them.
Individually, they weren’t impossible to defeat, but their numbers were so overwhelming that our party probably wouldn’t last long.
But it was fine.
The Sentries usually waited on standby in their barracks. As long as we didn’t make a scene and wander around the village noisily, we wouldn’t be discovered.
And we had no need to wander.
The inter-floor villages were enormous. If you started in the wrong place, finding the Sanctuary could take days, but we could find it immediately.
‘Over there.’
I pointed to a massive, cathedral-like building about thirty meters ahead.
The Sanctuary of Souls.
There were several staircases that led down to the inter-floor spaces, and the one we’d chosen was connected directly to the front of the Sanctuary.
Although what had been a three-meter distance on the floor above had stretched to about thirty meters here.
‘So far, it’s exactly as I remember.’
My plan was to flee back through the gate if Yernil detected any signs of danger, but it seemed we were okay.
Operation continues!
Creeak.
Holding our breath, we opened the Sanctuary door as quietly as possible.
*
Inside was a vast room, like a concert hall.
An incredible number of ossuaries were laid out on the floor.
A rough estimate put them in the thousands.
It looked like a pottery workshop.
“Good heavens.”
Yernil was horrified at the sight.
“You said we need to take the ossuary containing Back Attack’s soul, right?” Aimus asked.
“Yes.”
“But there are so many. Which one are we supposed to take?” Yernil asked.
“Those are all empty. The one we’re looking for is over there.”
I pointed to a large, five-meter-tall display case at the front of the room.
A single, milk-colored ossuary sat there. It was the same size as the others, but a light-green glow emanated from within.
“Is that the ossuary with Back Attack’s soul?”
Aimus approached the display case.
“It probably is.”
That was because Back Attack was the only adventurer to have had his soul captured recently.
When an adventurer was captured by the Labyrinth Master, their soul’s ossuary was placed on this display case, and they would appear as an exit boss.
What happened if they were later defeated by another adventurer and their body was damaged over time?
The ossuary would automatically empty.
It was just like how Avison couldn't be resurrected if his body was too damaged. The soul would simply vanish.
“When an ossuary is emptied, monsters will come here to move the empty container to the floor.”
Therefore, this was not the place to resurrect Back Attack.
“We’ll grab the ossuary, go back to the 1st Floor, and resurrect him there.”
“Excellent!”
Aimus’s expression brightened.
I felt good, too. I couldn’t believe it was going so smoothly. I’d been nervous that something might be different from the game.
“I’ll look for a ladder!”
Yernil glanced around.
“We don’t need a ladder.”
And there probably wasn’t one anyway.
“I can just get it down with magic.”
I took out the psychokinesis wand that had belonged to Sally, the ‘Master of Acting’ and leader of the plunderer group that tried to rob us but got robbed instead.
The physical force of the psychokinesis wasn't that strong, but it was perfect for retrieving something like that…
“What the?”
The moment I was about to cast the spell, a shocking scene caught my eye over Yernil’s shoulder.
A chill ran down my spine.
“What is that?”
Aimus saw it too.
A green light had just appeared in one of the empty ossuaries on the floor!
“Does this mean some adventurer was just captured by the Labyrinth Master?”
Aimus’s voice trembled.
Considering Back Attack, it was a reasonable assumption, but that was probably not it.
All the souls that entered the 1.5th Floor ossuaries belonged to 1st Floor adventurers.
And since Back Attack, the top rookie on the 1st Floor was me. I hadn't heard of any other promising newcomers.
The Labyrinth Master was careful when capturing adventurers. The soul that just filled that ossuary likely wasn't his doing. If that lunatic wanted to conduct another one of his madness interviews, he would have targeted me.
Then…
“Caleb.”
Yernil’s expression soured rapidly.
“I hear people’s voices.”
“Ah.”
Fuck.
I had a bad feeling, and it turned out to be the worst-case scenario.
Besides the Labyrinth Master imprisoning a soul, there was one other way for a soul to end up in an ossuary here.
By dying in an inter-floor space.
There were other adventurers here. And…
“I think they’re running this way…”
“Everyone, don’t even breathe!”
I shushed Yernil and Aimus.
As for the groaning Back Attack…
“Let me borrow this.”
I untied Yernil’s hair tie and tossed it to him.
I had no idea why that undead was so obsessed with Yernil’s hair, but when she untied it earlier, his eyes had practically bugged out.
Like a fierce dog given a chew toy, Back Attack popped the hair tie into his mouth and quieted down, chewing on it contentedly.
“Let’s wait quietly.”
“…”
“…”
Silence fell over the room.
Not me, not Yernil, not Aimus—none of us even dared to breathe. The tension felt like it was choking me.
Outside, however, it was growing louder.
—Aaaargh!
A scream.
—Remus! Run!
—Astin! We can’t leave Astin behind!
—Give up on Astin! He’s already dead!
So the guy who just ended up in the ossuary was named Astin.
What kind of morons came down here and started running around like that?
Somehow, they must have found a staircase to the 1.5th Floor, started exploring, and ran into the Sentries.
And while fighting and fleeing, one of them finally got caught and killed.
‘Just don’t come here.’
Please.
Sorry, but you need to solve your own problems. We just want to get out of here quietly. I don’t want to get dragged into this mess.
It was cold, but it couldn’t be helped. After making that much of a commotion, it was highly likely that they had attracted more than just the Sentries.
Yernil.
You were looking for a ladder because the ossuary was too high up, right?
There are no ladders here.
Then how did the ossuary get up that high?
Because the Caretaker of Rest can reach it with its own hands.
It’s the boss that manages the Sanctuary of Souls. If that monster shows up, we’re all finished.
‘Please.’
Don’t come this way!
If I could, I’d lock the door, but the entrance to the Sanctuary has no lock.
I glanced back at Yernil.
“…”
Her face was pale.
We’re fucked.
—Hide in that cathedral!
They were coming here.
*
Even a third-rate monk like Aimus had heard about the 1.5th Floor, but not even a professor at the magic university knew about the Sanctuary.
What could be inferred from this?
That the adventurers of this world knew of the 1.5th Floor’s existence, but cases of it being explored were rare.
So, here’s a quiz.
What were the odds that one of those rare cases would happen to storm in right in front of me during the five-minute window I was on the 1.5th Floor to retrieve an ossuary?
Goddammit, I knew things were going too easily.
CRASH!
Three moronic adventurers burst through the door.
I wondered what kind of lunatics they were, but one of them was a familiar face.
“Caleb!?”
That talkative lizard.
The Paladin of Nathaniel who almost joined our party instead of the monk.
“Hah.”
I slapped my forehead with a sigh.
His name was Bernard, right?
“Bernard. What in the world are you…”
“Caleb! This is no time to be so relaxed! You don’t seem to realize how dangerous this place is!”
It wasn’t dangerous until you showed up.
“We must prepare for battle immediately! There are monsters right behind us!”
You’re the ones who led them here, you crazy bastards!
“There was a gate right there, why didn’t you just go through it? Why did you come in here?”
“There was a gate? I didn’t see it!”
Oh, you did great. Just great.
The more we talked, the more I felt like an idiot.
‘Huh?’
Now that I looked, the other two, besides the lizard, matched a description I’d heard before.
A barbarian with a two-handed axe.
A halfling with a crossbow.
Wait a minute.
“Plunderers!”
Yernil jumped, reflexively drawing an arrow.
“The 2nd Floor plunderers!”
This was the exact team that Sally, the Master of Acting, had told us about, wasn’t it?
“What kind of crazy talk is that!”
“What do you mean, plunderers!”
The barbarian and the halfling drew their weapons simultaneously, shouting.
“Yernil! Calm down!”
I quickly shouted to her.
These guys weren’t plunderers. That was another one of Sally’s lies.
Because Bernard was with them.
The very concept of a ‘Paladin plunderer’ was hard to swallow. It was on the level of hot iced tea. In the Labyrinth, paladins and priests were basically a guarantee of trustworthiness.
And thinking back on that lizard’s personality, he was definitely trustworthy. That guy would probably pay for the goods even if someone forced him to plunder.
That’s why when Sally was spinning her tale about that team being plunderers, she’d said there was a ‘lizard wizard’ instead of a ‘lizard paladin.’
“Wait a minute. That armor. Isn’t that what that mutt of a rogue was wearing?”
The halfling pointed at the armor Back Attack was wearing.
“Caleb! Did you defeat the plunderer group?” Bernard asked.
“They attacked us, so we killed them.”
“I knew it!”
Suddenly, Bernard clenched his fists.
“I knew it would be like this! This was all part of the grand picture guided by Nathaniel!”
The lizard’s party must have been attacked by Sally’s party. And from the looks of it, they beat the crap out of Sally’s team, and Sally’s team barely escaped, only to run into us, right?
“After you all left on your journey to retrieve Back Attack’s soul, I too received an order from my church, formed a party, and entered this place.”
So that’s what happened.
I don’t know how he found the stairs, but considering even Aimus knew about the 1.5th Floor’s existence, it seemed the Temple of Nathaniel also had information on the inter-floor spaces.
That’s why our timing overlapped. No wonder the probability seemed so impossibly low.
“Our meeting here is a revelation from Nathaniel that we are to complete this mission together!”
The deeply moved lizard clasped his hands together in front of his chest like a young maiden.
“Monk!”
He then shouted at Aimus.
“I was rude last time. You are by no means a lacking monk. I offer my sincere apology.”
What the hell? Why is he suddenly being nice to Aimus…
“I heard you are an apostate monk! I didn’t know before, but hearing that, I understand. You finally realized your faith was on the wrong path and abandoned it! Now, you must return to the embrace of Nathaniel! That is why Nathaniel planted you in that party in my stead!”
Well, at least he’s a consistent lizard.
“Bernard!”
The barbarian shouted, looking outside.
“The monsters are swarming in!”
“Hmph.”
Bernard slammed the main door shut and yelled.
“Barrier of Exorcism!”
He covered the entrance with a Tier 2 divine magic spell.
“We will end our battle with the demons here! Caleb’s party, support me!”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Sentries were already pounding on the cathedral door.
And…
‘The Caretaker.’
Outside the window, the shadow of a towering, ghost-like monster flickered.
Goddammit. Seriously.
It was so unfair I could cry.
I mean, honestly, did it really have to turn out like this?
“Bernard.”
“Yes!”
“Could you come back here and follow my instructions?”
“Me? Follow Caleb’s instructions? Without any compensation?”
“Weren’t you attacked by Sally’s team? We took care of them for you.”
“…!?”
Bernard’s eyes went wide.
“I see! That’s right! I should have been the one to punish those heinous criminals who attacked a follower of Nathaniel, but Caleb, you did my work for me! That’s right! We were in your debt! So this is how Nathaniel guided us! Haha! Give your command!”
He really is an easy lizard to handle.
Let’s re-analyze our combat strength.
Among all the bullshit that automatically spewed from Sally’s mouth whenever she opened it, one thing was true.
That they were a ‘2nd Floor’ party.
Bernard seemed decent, and the other two looked capable as well.
A barbarian fighter with a two-handed axe.
A halfling crossbowman.
And I already had a rough idea of the paladin lizard from his interview.
“You two, the barbarian and the halfling! Tell me what skills you have. Quickly!”
It wasn’t the best combination, but with this, we might just have a chance.