Chapter 6: A Dream of Leveling Up
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 6: A Dream of Leveling Up
Twelve hours had passed since we entered the labyrinth.
We’d killed about twenty goblins, and our backpack was starting to fill up with magic stones.
And we were slowly reaching our physical limits.
We needed a rest.
“Let’s take a break.”
“Really?”
At my words, Yernil’s face instantly brightened. Her expression, which had been gloomy ever since the fight with the slave team, suddenly came alive.
You wear your heart on your sleeve, don’t you?
“Should we eat?” she asked.
“Let’s.”
Muttering a word of thanks to Mr. Avison and praying he’d gone to a better place, I opened the backpack.
I gathered a few flat stones from nearby to make a stand, placed some branches underneath, and started a fire.
I set the frying pan on top and started cooking the bacon.
Meanwhile, Yernil carefully buttered some bread and handed it to me.
“Here, Caleb!”
“Thanks.”
By modern standards, it wasn't much of a meal, but in our current situation, it was deeply moving. The savory fat from the butter and the carbohydrates filled my stomach, and I started to feel human again.
“Caleb.”
Yernil spoke up softly from beside me.
“Thank you so much for saving me twice today.”
“The second time, we fought together. You took care of most of them, Yernil.”
To be honest, there were so many that I might not have won on my own.
It was a good thing Yernil had sound-mapping.
“But if you had accepted their offer…”
Yernil shuddered as if the thought was horrifying.
“Why would I do that?”
Honestly, if it came down to only one of us surviving, I’d choose myself. But you’d do the same, wouldn’t you?
We weren’t close enough to die for each other.
But in a situation like the one before, we’d naturally team up and fight.
A trustworthy companion in the labyrinth is just that valuable of an asset.
We finished our meal.
It wasn’t extravagant, but it was filling.
We decided to take turns sleeping. I unrolled the sleeping bag that was attached to the backpack.
“You should sleep first, Caleb!”
I accepted Yernil’s considerate offer.
But when I got in, I found the sleeping bag was damp. It was my fault for putting on that lightning-and-steam show in the puddle.
Looks like I’ll have to dry this with my body heat. Could this be Yernil’s grand strategy? So you were a pro all along? You could probably clear the game on Absolute Strategy difficulty, no problem.
Laughing at my own ridiculous thoughts, I realized just how tired I was.
It made sense.
The others might have entered the labyrinth at 10 AM, but I had come here after getting off work, at 11 PM, by starting up the Abyss on Developer Difficulty.
In terms of perceived time, it was like I’d pulled an all-nighter, and on top of that, I’d been constantly fighting goblins and psychopathic murderers.
My physical and mental stamina were at their limits.
The moment I got into the sleeping bag and closed my eyes, I was out like a light. And at the same time…
[Entering a state of rest.]
I saw a message window float before my eyes.
[Caleb's level has increased.]
▶Lv.1 → Lv.3
[Yernil's level has increased.]
▶Lv.1 → Lv.3
In this game, the way to level up was to ‘sleep.’
*
Was this a dream?
Or was I really being provided with a level-up system?
I didn’t know.
My surroundings were as dark as midnight. I couldn’t see Yernil or the campfire.
I was floating in the darkness, observing my status window.
[Distribute 2 ability points.]
[Caleb Lv.3]
[Strength(0), Agility(0), Wisdom(10+2), Health(0), Dexterity(0)]
Everything that had happened so far had faithfully followed the flow of a game.
There was a high chance this was real, too.
The thought filled me with a renewed sense of awe.
Why was Wisdom 10+2?
I had a rough idea. As if to confirm, I reached out a hand, and an explanation appeared below.
[+1 from Icicle Wand]
[+1 from Fireball Wand]
So the equipment bonus was definitely working.
I put all my ability points into Wisdom.
『Wisdom(12+2)』
Now I could shatter a goblin’s shield.
Next, should I check on Yernil?
[Distribute 2 ability points.]
[Yernil Lv.3]
[Strength(0), Agility(8+1), Wisdom(0), Health(0), Dexterity(2)]
Wow! Yernil!
You didn’t let me down!
The plus one to Agility seemed to be from the goblin bow, and a base Agility of 8 meant she was an incredibly lucky character roll.
On top of that, in my party-building strategy, archers needed a little Dexterity, and she already had points in it.
Not a single stat point wasted!
For a guy who got thrown into a life-or-death labyrinth while playing a game, my luck with teammates was absurdly good.
I put all of her ability points into Agility.
Then, I checked the special ability tab in her status window.
-Special Ability: Sound-mapping
(This ability allows the user to identify the number and location of targets through sound and corrects accuracy to normal values when blinded.)
My guess had been right.
Her special ability was a good roll, too.
No, this was seriously good.
Yernil, you’re a promising young archer, aren’t you?
*
I prayed that when I opened my eyes, I would have escaped this hell and be back in my own bed, but of course, that didn’t happen.
Instead, thanks to the meal and some sleep, my body felt much more refreshed.
“Yernil, it’s your turn to sleep now.”
“Thank you!”
As if she’d been waiting, she quickly crawled into the sleeping bag. And I…
“What are you doing?”
I had set up a goblin shield a short distance away and was aiming my Fireball wand at it.
“Verification.”
“Verification?”
“Fireball.”
KABOOM!
A bolt of fire shot out and shattered the shield.
Goblin shields could be broken starting at 13 Wisdom.
Just as I thought. The level-up I’d just experienced wasn’t a dream.
“Whoa.”
Yernil let out a gasp of awe from inside the sleeping bag.
“To think you could just break a shield like that…”
Yernil’s eyes sparkled with interest at my sudden show of strength.
But her eyelids quickly drooped over them.
She must have been exhausted.
She was fast asleep in an instant.
We would take 2.5-hour shifts, each getting 5 hours of sleep.
How were we keeping time, you ask?
Drip. Drip.
With the water droplets falling from the icicle I’d stuck to the ceiling.
It took an average of 2.5 hours for one of those to melt completely.
Thanks to that, the floor was soaked.
*
Every floor of the labyrinth has an ‘Exit Gate’ and ‘Stairs.’
The stairs are passages to other floors, but that wasn’t our concern right now.
We had to find the Exit Gate.
The gate’s location is random, and finding it usually comes down to luck.
It was like that in the game, and it was like that now.
If you were lucky, you could find it in a few hours. If you were unlucky, you could be stranded here for weeks.
So, what kind of luck did a possessor who was kidnapped into this god-forsaken labyrinth while playing a game have?
Probably among the worst.
Yernil, sorry to break it to you, but the party you joined isn’t one where some amazing genius wizard carries you through. It’s a cursed party with the worst luck imaginable.
We’d probably have to search for at least a week to find the Exit Gate… or so I thought.
“Huh?”
Just as I was thinking that, we found it.
[EXIT]
It was the exit room.
If we opened that door and went inside, the gate would be there.
“…”
The problem was, there were already adventurers gathered in front of the exit room door.
Three of them.
A male Dwarf warrior, a male Beastfolk rogue, and a female Human priest.
Judging by their gear, they seemed quite experienced. This was a proper party, not a ragtag bunch like the slave team.
“You lot, from the Magic University’s slave team?” the Dwarf warrior asked.
“That’s right,” I replied.
At the same time, Yernil gently tugged on my arm.
Having already had a terrible experience with the bald slave team, Yernil seemed to be scared by the very presence of other adventurers.
But I wanted to talk to them.
Other adventurers in the labyrinth were dangerous, but they could also be allies.
For now, they didn’t seem hostile, and more importantly, this was the exit. Where else were we supposed to go?
“When did the Magic University send in the slave team?” the Dwarf warrior asked the Beastfolk rogue.
“Ten o’clock yesterday morning,” the Human priest answered instead.
“So it’s been a day and a half, then.”
The dwarf gave me a slow, deliberate look.
No fewer than eight wands were tucked into my belt. One was mine. Three belonged to Yernil, Fatty, and the fanatic. The other four were from the bald guy’s party.
Yernil, however, was holding a bow, not a wand.
“Looks like the elf realized early on she had no talent for magic and switched weapons.”
The dwarf was piecing together our party’s last day.
“The human male has collected a bunch of wands and is even holding one in each hand… You must be pretty confident in your magic, eh?”
“Yes.”
“Khaha. I like that you’re not modest. You got a Fireball wand?”
“Yes.”
At that, the dwarf exchanged glances with his friends again.
“What should we do?”
“We can’t just sit around here any longer,” the Beastfolk rogue said, his tail swishing.
“I don’t think we’ll find a better wizard,” said the priest.
“So, should we try to recruit him?”
“Well, he says he’s confident, at least.”
“Confident or not, he’s a slave team wizard. If you’re expecting Avison’s level, you’ll be sorely disappointed.”
Avison?
The owner of our backpack?
“Did you lose your party’s wizard?”
“Yeah. Ran into a Black Hornet and died,” the dwarf replied.
Black Hornets are monsters that look like giant black wasps, one of the most dangerous creatures on the first floor of the labyrinth.
“He’s not dead yet,” the Human priest corrected.
“I cast Soul Preservation magic on him. We can bring him back if we get a resurrection scroll.”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? We can’t get out to get a resurrection scroll.”
I could guess what was going on.
They had lost their wizard and found the exit room, but inside was a powerful enemy they couldn’t defeat without one.
An ‘Exit Boss.’
That’s what they called the bosses that guarded the exit rooms. You had to defeat it to open the Exit Gate.
What kind of monster was it?
If it was undead, it wouldn’t be a problem since they had a priest.
A troll, salamander, or brass goat wouldn’t be an issue for this party composition either. The warrior and rogue, buffed by the priest, could easily take them down together.
A flying type?
That was a possibility.
A flying Exit Boss would be a difficult target for a knight or a rogue.
But…
If that were the case, they’d be more interested in Yernil than me.
An archer is better than a wizard for intercepting aerial targets. So why were they looking for a wizard, specifically one with a Fireball wand?
There was only one answer.
“Is the Exit Boss a Venomic Spider?”
“!”
The adventurers were startled. The dwarf’s shoulders even jumped.
“What?”
“How did he know?”
“How does a slave wizard know about the Venomic Spider?”
As his party members murmured amongst themselves, the dwarf’s eyes gleamed.
“You know a thing or two about the labyrinth, do you?”
“I know a little.”
Probably more than you do.
The Venomic Spider is a troublesome monster that shoots deadly poison and webs. The exit room would be filled with webs, and the spider would be darting across them at incredible speeds to pick off the party members.
The warrior and rogue would get hit by the webs, become ‘Slowed’ or ‘Bound,’ and be killed while they were helpless.
The counter was a wizard.
To be precise, a wizard who could use fire magic. The plan was to burn away all the webs with flames. Once you set the ceiling on fire and forced the spider to the ground, the knight and rogue could beat it down.
“Hmm…”
The dwarf exchanged another look with the rogue and the priest.
“I don’t know about his magic, but he seems pretty sharp.”
“Should we trust him and give it a shot?”
“It’s our only option anyway.”
The three of them conferred for a moment before making up their minds.
“You two, join our party temporarily.”
“No.”
I answered flatly.
“...?”
My unexpected reply left the dwarf’s party stunned.