Chapter 56: Dokkebis Don't Get Cold
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 56: Dokkebis Don't Get Cold
When she first met the Dokkebi, the Fox Spirit Soyul was a 2nd-floor adventurer in the Labyrinth.
Having left Wyndham under complicated circumstances, her new life as an adventurer in Sohen was not easy.
It was hard to find a party.
‘No foxes. They're bad luck.’
‘Sorry. It's not that we really believe in that stuff, but it just feels... off.’
‘Our party is already full.’
‘I'm not discriminating, but Fox Spirits use magic differently, right? It'd be hard to sync up with us.’
With every rejection, her worries mounted, but at the same time, she also felt a sense of relief.
Because in a land like this, adventurers were just as dangerous to a Fox Spirit as the Labyrinth's monsters.
The tails of a Fox Spirit were traded on the black market as the highest quality fur.
A Fox Spirit's fox marble was also a collector's item for the wealthy, fetching a high price on the black market.
And so, Soyul, who had been extremely picky about which adventurer party to join...
“Wow, what a relief!”
...joined a party of complete beginners on the 1st floor.
According to the Adventurer's Guild's Labyrinth records, they were a novice party that had only entered the 1st floor twice.
A party so full of beginners that, if it came down to it, Soyul could have easily taken on all three of them by herself.
“We nearly died every time we entered the Labyrinth, so I was really worried this time, too.”
The scrawny human man, carrying a two-handed sword that looked a bit too heavy for him, rejoiced.
“Having a 2nd-floor adventurer with us is so reassuring. Who cares if you're a Fox Spirit? I'm a beastman myself.”
The canine beastman mage bowed his head repeatedly.
“We'll get strong in no time! Let's go to the 2nd floor together!”
The female Halfling rogue was so happy about Soyul joining that she jumped up and down.
“Finally, our Labyrinth adventures will be a little more stable!”
She realized something was wrong right after they entered the Labyrinth.
As soon as they arrived on the 1st floor, the three of them suddenly started swapping gear.
The beastman effortlessly wielded the scrawny human's two-handed sword in one hand, and the beastman's wand went to the Halfling. The Halfling casually waved the wand, casting a few buff spells, while the human man expertly pulled a knife from his back pocket.
“Ever seen this? It's called a leaping ambush—”
The human man chuckled as he severed Soyul's Achilles tendon.
“Sorry. We're not actually a 1st-floor party. We've been to the 2nd floor over fifty times.”
The Halfling mage cast ‘Entangling Vines’ on Soyul, pinning her to the ground.
“B-but the records...”
“Forged, obviously. It was hard for you to tell since you're from Wyndham, right?”
The beastman fighter caressed the cheek of Soyul, who lay on the floor.
“I feel bad doing this to a fellow beastfolk, but you know how it is, right? The world is a cruel place. What can you do? You've already got three tails.”
Wiping away the tears streaming down her cheek, he whispered in her ear.
“Someone's willing to pay a high price!”
Terrified, Soyul trembled uncontrollably as the beastman raised the two-handed sword.
“They say one fox marble can buy two pieces of magic gear. We have no choice if we want to get to the 3rd floor. Sorry.”
“Papa! Kappapa!”
It was around then that a strange green monster appeared.
“Don't move. All three of you.”
The rogue, clinging to the ceiling as if walking on the wall, was on a completely different level from the 2nd-floor small fry.
“Yaaaaah!”
And from the end of the hall, an Eastern man was charging madly towards them, a two-handed sword aimed forward.
“Give me that fooooox!”
He charged recklessly and swung his sword at the canine beastman. The beastman blocked, but his body was cleaved in two, sword and all.
“Wh-what the hell!”
“This is insane!”
“Why are 3rd-floor adventurers here of all places...?!”
The horrified Halfling mage tried to flee but was killed by a thrown dagger from the Kappa. The last one, the human rogue...
“Shadow Leap!”
...barely managed to escape the scene and dashed into the darkness.
But he didn't get far.
A moment later, he was dragged back out of the shadows.
In the grasp of a 2.6-meter-tall Dokkebi.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Soyul still clearly remembers the tremors that shook the ground with each step of those giant feet.
Her first meeting with him was electrifying.
The Dokkebi wore a wide-brimmed straw hat and a large straw cloak.
In his hand, he held a club studded with conical spikes.
His blue-skinned face looked tough.
His eyes were sharp and glaring, his nose was prominent, and he had a strong jawline.
“Hey, fox.”
He threw the terrified, trembling human rogue to the floor.
“In Sohen, when you join a party of strangers by yourself, try to pick one with a 'priest'.”
“S-save... me... Gack!”
The Dokkebi pinned the rogue down, stomping on him with a foot as heavy as an iron ingot.
“Or a party of Eastern beastfolk, like us.”
CRUNCH!
The club, brought down with immense force, crushed the man's upper body to a pulp.
His torso was gone!
“Red, so red.”
That Dokkebi was a famous figure among the 3rd-floor adventurers.
A Dokkebi shrouded in endless rumors—ominous, unlucky, mysterious, and terrifying.
Gildal.
“A pretty flower has bloomed.”
He flicked the blood from his club and smiled faintly from beneath his straw hat.
“Come with us to the 3rd floor, fox. We'll protect you.”
The Dokkebi took off his large straw cloak and draped it over the shoulders of the trembling Soyul.
Beneath the cloak, his bare skin was revealed.
Gildal was practically naked, wearing only a large, ragged loincloth.
“Hey, you're practically naked yourself,” Hijikata said, dumbfounded.
“Aren't you cold?”
“Dokkebis don't get cold.”
He said that, but his teeth were chattering.
For a man with such a ferocious face and massive build, he was surprisingly funny.
“...”
Soyul's fear suddenly melted away like snow.
Her body, which had been trembling like a leaf, slowly calmed.
The straw cloak was warm.
*
“Dokkebis don't get cold...”
Hijikata finished his story with a grim expression.
“That's bullshit. That bastard Gildal caught a cold when we got back. It was just a bluff, obviously. He gets cold as fuck. Almost as much as a cold-blooded Kappa.”
The stone floor of the 1st floor is cold, but it's nothing compared to the snowfields of the 3rd floor.
Soyul had been trembling back then not because she was cold, but because she was scared.
Hijikata bought medicine, went to Gildal, and scolded him for his stupid bluff, but Gildal just laughed.
‘But she stopped trembling when I gave her the cloak, didn't she?’
Ironically, the person most resistant to the 3rd floor's cold was Soyul.
Because she had cold-resistance magic.
Soyul learned that Gildal was very sensitive to the cold. She started paying extra attention to his cold-resistance magic.
Ironically, that very magic was also the cause of the tragedy.
“We got into an argument with another party on the 3rd floor. They'd lost their cold-weather gear and asked Soyul for her magic.”
This kind of service transaction is common in the Labyrinth, but Hijikata's party is a bit different.
They can't do business on credit.
Because if those guys get outside and pretend they don't know anything, that's the end of it.
The Public Security Headquarters and the Adventurer's Guild don't really care when an Eastern party is treated unfairly.
Gildal's party demanded payment for the service up front in Magic Stones, but the other party refused. The argument escalated, and another party that disliked Gildal joined in.
Then, the hot-headed human warrior from the opposing party, now with superior numbers, crossed the line.
‘You fucking fox bitch. I could just skin you and wrap your fur around my neck. You want me to do that?’
Gildal roared at them not to dare threaten his party member in front of him. It turned into a brawl, and even though there were eight of them, Hijikata's party won.
“Gildal killed four of them by himself.”
But that's when he disappeared.
“After the chaotic fight, we looked back and saw only the four corpses smashed by Gildal's club. Gildal was gone. We never found him.”
Soyul cried the entire way back.
‘There are only three minutes left.’
She kept counting down the remaining duration of the cold-resistance magic on Gildal.
“So I can't just leave Gildal in a place like this. This place is...”
Hijikata hardened his resolve.
“...too cold.”
Hijikata was the most human-looking one in the party, so he acted as the leader, but everyone knew the truth.
The real leader of the party was Gildal. He was a great tree for the discriminated Eastern beastfolk to lean on. Like a moving fortress.
“I will not leave him here. If he can't be turned back into a human, I will kill him myself. I'll take his body and give him a proper funeral. And one more thing.”
He couldn't end it there.
Now, Hijikata could no longer be satisfied with just that.
“Antonelli. I will kill that undead bastard. No matter what.”
“...”
Aimus and Back Attack exchanged troubled glances.
“But Caleb will probably want to gather the party and escape to the 2nd floor.”
“Yes. I know. That's the right call,” Hijikata said.
“It's the recommended course of action when a Monster Wave hits. You all should escape to the 2nd floor. If possible, please take Soyul and Gadozumi with you.”
Hijikata gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.
“I will fight, even if I have to do it alone.”
*
What's this?
When I arrived at the cave, Aimus and Back Attack looked like they were at a funeral.
“Caleb... are we heading for the 2nd floor now?”
“Why?”
“No, it's just... well... I've got a twisted personality, so it pisses me off to just run away after getting played by that lich bastard. I kinda want to pay him back.”
“Pay him back?”
“No, never mind, Caleb. Just talking. Let's go. Leaving is the right move. For the record, Hijikata says he's not going...”
“We can't go to the 2nd floor.”
At that, Aimus, Back Attack, and Hijikata all snapped their heads up at the same time.
“What do you mean?”
“The 2nd Floor Gate has probably already been taken.”
“What!? But the monolith was just taken a little while ago!” Back Attack shouted.
“Isn't the Exit Room supposed to be next after the monolith?”
“It is. But this time, the order has changed.”
This time, the Exit Room is third.
Why?
“Because Antonelli became an Exit Boss in front of the 2nd Floor Gate.”
Normally, two Exit Bosses can't exist in the Labyrinth at the same time.
The appearance of a new Exit Boss means the previous Exit Room has been cleared.
“The Labyrinth mistook the spot where the new Exit Boss was born for a new Exit Room.”
“Is... that possible?”
It is.
I'd only experienced a strange situation like this a few times in the game, but it was the same here as it was in the game. I'm sure of it.
“As proof, we didn't encounter a single Monster Wave on our way here from Gildal's Exit Room.”
I was extremely cautious, worried we might run into monsters coming to occupy the Exit Room, but we didn't see a single one.
They probably all went to take over the area in front of the 2nd Floor Gate.
“Conversely, that means an exit gate still exists in the Exit Room that Gildal vacated, but there's no guarantee we can get there safely.”
Because the next wave will hit while we're on the way.
“But don't worry too much. We can get out of here alive without going up to the 2nd floor.”
“H-how?”
“By activating the monolith here and killing the lich.”
I expected them to be scared or flustered by the absurd proposal, but surprisingly, all three of them looked fine.
In fact, they even seemed to like the idea.
“We don't have much time, so listen carefully.”
I showed them three coins and briefed them on the plan.
Then I took Hijikata's message-sending wand and sent a note to Yernil.
[This is Caleb. I've joined up with Hijikata's team. We're heading to your location with Gadozumi. Come out on my signal. After that, we're heading for the summit of the snowy mountain. We're going to activate the monolith. The 2nd Floor Gate has already been taken.]
*
“Is he insane?”
The Kappa Gadozumi felt his breath catch in his throat as he read the note from Caleb.
“This guy has to be crazy!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, 'why'?! Get a grip, elf!”
Gadozumi shook Yernil's shoulders frantically.
“He says he's going to activate the monolith!”
“He must have solved the cipher!”
“I can't believe that either, but let's just say he did. Activating the monolith is still insane! Why? Because there are a thousand monsters swarming the summit!” Gadozumi shouted.
“We have to put the answers in three boxes! Let's say Caleb has all three answers. How is he supposed to put them in the boxes? If a thousand monsters were just going to stand by and watch, why would we be trapped here in the first place?!”
“Oh... is that right?”
“Of course it is!”
“Then what do we do?”
“What do we do...?”
Gadozumi looked down again at the terrible sentence at the end of the message.
[...The 2nd Floor Gate has already been taken.]
“There's no other way.”
There's no escape route now.
Going out now to search for an Exit Room would be just as suicidal. If the 2nd Floor Gate is taken, the Exit Room must be taken too.
“Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!”
Gadozumi slapped the top of his bald head.
“We're finished...!”
“Caleb must have a plan. Let's just trust him!”
“For a plan like that to work, we'd need someone with enough aggro to draw the attention of every single monster on the summit. But who's going to do that?”
Poof!
Another note flew in front of Yernil.
[Now. We're moving in. Gildal is heading up there too.]