Chapter 10
Chapter 10
White walls that look old, but seem like they wouldn't allow any enemy to enter. A black gate that makes you shrink back just looking at it.
Passing the guards who are strictly controlling passersby under it, and entering the gate, what unfolds before your eyes is a well-paved European-style stone road. The buildings lining the street are all antique marble, and there isn't a single trashy shop in sight.
If you turn your gaze here and there and follow the straight road with your eyes...
You will be able to see it.
The massive mountain range piercing the sky, and the white spire that sits on top, built by carving out the very mountain itself.
It's a structure that anyone coming here for the first time can't help but feel awe towards.
And that is the Magic Tower.
And the city that embraces that Magic Tower is the Magic Tower City Arcanum.
Of course, as soon as I saw that 'awe-inspiring' Magic Tower, I thought.
'This is Minas Tirith. That movie version.'
That part that looks like a horn, using the mountain range as it is, is especially similar. The creator of this game must have watched The Lord of the Rings with deep impression to design the city like that.
Well, that's not important.
"What kind of healer do you think would be good?"
"Hmm..."
I ponder Hera's question for a moment.
Being a healer is a blessing... is absolutely not the case.
If it were just about being a healer, I wouldn't have come all the way here and would have just solved it in our city.
Even if I took that emergency medical technician along, if I worked them hard enough, they would play the role of a healer.
"First of all, they need to have sense."
"That Triceratops thing you mentioned before?"
"What's a Triceratops. Do you even know what that is?"
"No. It just came to mind for some reason?"
I thought there were dinosaurs in this world, too.
Anyway, they need to have Triage, if not perfectly, then at least to a certain level.
And that's not just considering the severity of the injury, but it also has to be reflected in the immediate battle.
For example, if I have a moderate injury and Hera has a serious injury, it's obviously right to stick to Hera.
But if there's a situation where a knight or a giant monster is about to attack, it's most important to provide the minimum first aid to me.
Because I have to be able to at least stand up to block the enemy and treat Hera in the meantime.
"Isn't the required level too high?"
"But if it's not like this, there's no point in coming all the way here. If I were going to take just any random people, I would have taken anyone from the start."
"True."
While we were chatting about this and that, we arrived near the Magic Tower.
The Magic Tower was built by carving out the mountain range, but that's not all.
There are small towers or buildings rising up to support the main tower, either because there was no space around the main tower, or they didn't have the qualifications, or for some other reason.
And the most popular place among them was the Restoration School District. Commonly known as the Healer District. Despite being a non-mainstream school, that place was always crowded with people. It was natural when you think about how many people get hurt while living their lives.
That was where we were going, too.
Anyway, the Healer District was protected by white stone walls and rose thorns placed on top of them.
"How can I help you?"
"Hmm, well, for starters... I came to see if there are any mages who want to join a Labyrinth expedition."
Unlike other schools that are struggling, they seem to be guarding quite diligently. When I took out and showed the High-level Explorer badge to the guard wearing off-white clothes, he took a notebook out of his pocket, compared it delicately, and soon closed the notebook.
"Verification complete. High-level Explorer Rian Werner-nim, High-level Explorer Hera-nim. You may enter."
We nodded slightly and entered, and a place that could be called a city within a city unfolded.
Buildings arranged in a circle, centered around a huge white building—the kind that a modern person like me would immediately say, 'That's a hospital'—greeted visitors with various personalities. You could see a mix of buildings that were clearly built haphazardly and white buildings that seemed to have been built by the Magic Tower.
I headed to one of them, a place I had been to before.
It was the referral office of the Restoration School.
To ask why on earth the Magic Tower would have something like a referral office, wouldn't it seem like people looking for healers are spread all over the world?
Since there were so many such people, they had prepared an official window like this.
When I opened the wooden door with a glass pane and entered, a ttallang sound announced our arrival.
The inside was in the form of a counter, similar to the 「Silver Needle Guild」.
The waiting customers glanced at us and then turned their heads away as if uninterested, and the person standing next to the door spoke to us.
"How can I help you?"
"Ah, we came from the Labyrinth City. I was wondering if there are any... mages who are hoping to become explorers."
People from the Restoration School don't like it when you call them healers.
They say they are mages, not healers.
Honestly, it seems like the same thing, but well, they don't like it, so there's no need to insist on that term right in front of them.
"You mean explorers?"
"Yes. Hmm... we are thinking of clearing the Deep Layer."
"Understood. Please wait a moment."
The person who was talking while walking around the counter soon guided us to one side.
While he returned to his seat, Hera and I stood in front of the counter in the far left corner. The employee, with an expression that seemed to have 'I have nothing to do and I'm bored' written all over his face, looked at us listlessly and said.
"You came looking for explorer aspirants?"
"Yes. For the Deep Layer."
"Are you... aspiring for the Deep Layer? I mean..."
"No. We are High-level Explorers."
When I put down the badge, the employee's eyes widened slightly.
Perhaps because it was his first time seeing a High-level Explorer.
To talk a little bit about 'High-level Explorers' at this point, to summarize in one word, they are 'explorers certified to be able to go to the Deep Layer on their own power.'
In game terms, it's like an officially certified ranker.
To be precise, it's not a ranker, but more like, 'If you go to the Deep Layer with this person, they will definitely do more than their fair share.'
Of course, it's not something you can get by playing rock-paper-scissors, so both Hera and I could only obtain the High-level Explorer qualification after rolling in the Deep Layer for several years.
Conversely, that's why even such High-level Explorers are reluctant to fully clear the Labyrinth, but well... I'll talk about that later.
"If you say you are High-level Explorers, just a moment..."
Sensing that the conversation was serious, the employee scratched his messy hair and rummaged through the data here and there.
Perhaps embarrassed by his own appearance, the employee said in a slightly muffled voice while not stopping his hands.
"Actually, among the people who register for future aspirations, most of the experienced ones actually leave for the Labyrinth City. So we don't really have things organized..."
"It's fine. We didn't come looking for veterans, rookies are fine too."
"Yes? Hmm..."
The employee looked up, wondering what to think, and then rummaged through the data again. After a few touches, she opened the door that came up to the waist next to the counter, saying, "Please come in."
"Since you said new mages are fine, I've sorted them out... but what kind of feeling are you looking for, roughly?"
"We are going to clear the Deep Layer, but we don't have a good healer. So we thought it would be better to go up from the beginning with us."
"If possible, please make it a woman."
When I glared at Hera for talking nonsense, Hera retorted with a look that said, 'What.' It's not a situation where I can worry about your preferences.
The employee seemed to think the same, and just let it slide with, "Hmm, as for gender...", and sorted through the documents one by one. I couldn't tell what she was looking at to remove or add, but anyway, something was being filtered out.
And the organized documents were placed in front of me.
It's hard to tell just by reading, but there didn't seem to be anyone with disqualifying factors.
While I was reading the documents, the Magic Tower employee said.
"First of all, I want to tell you that in our school, we don't really welcome sending out mages who haven't completed their training yet."
'Yeah, right.'
"Yes."
"But since we can't stop the applicants, and there are so many places that need the touch of our school... it is also true that we cannot block such requests."
A long-winded speech.
I know well why the employee's tongue is getting long. When I took out a few silver coins from my pocket and handed them over, the employee said, "Thank you," and put the coins in the money box.
Still, I thought it was fortunate that she didn't skim off the top.
... No, wait, seeing that it's one less than what I gave, did she eat one?
Well, the school would probably tolerate that much.
When I handed over the documents that no one had filtered, the employee nodded and said.
"I will contact these people and tell them to come. If there are those who can come, they will all come tomorrow. If they can't come, they probably aren't in Arcanum."
"Should we come here?"
"No, um... if you let me know your accommodation, I will send a message by morning. You can wait there."
"Yes, I understand."
Maybe because it's a magic city, it has some advanced aspects.
On our side, if we make an appointment, we have to wait for 1-2 hours, saying things like 'just before the sun goes down' or 'around lunchtime'.
I know it's useless to complain about that, but it was true that it was being compared.
"Goodbye."
"Have a good day."
When we pushed open the jingling door and came out, the sun was slowly setting. It seemed like evening was approaching.
"We're done with our business, shall we look around the city?"
"How about finding more party members here?"
"At the Magic Tower?"
"Well, it's a place where mages are gathered, right? I think there might be many strong and useful people?"
A valid point.
But I shook my head.
It was a correct statement, but also a wrong one.
At least in my opinion, that was the case.
"You might be saying that because you didn't have any when you ran with me... but high-level mages from the Magic Tower don't fit well with the Labyrinth."
"Oh, really? Why?"
"The environment is bad."
A closed place, an isolated place. A place where the flow of magic power changes irregularly. A place where enemies and allies are often tangled up rather than clearly separated.
That is the Labyrinth.
Naturally, it's a difficult environment for desk-jockeys to adapt to.
"Battle mages might be different, but regular mages have a hard time. Especially the higher their rank or the more external experience they have."
"Really?"
"Everyone I've experienced was like that."
Because their magic power got twisted and went out of control, I've even blown off the head of a poor mage myself.
It was done at their request (they didn't say it directly, but they did it with their eyes), but it wasn't such a pleasant experience.
I'd rather have lower firepower than take on a source of instability.
Then why take a healer as a mage?
Because you can train a rookie, that's why.
"Hmm, is that so."
"For now, they said they'd contact us tomorrow, so let's wait. If they're no good, then let's move in earnest."
"That would be better. Then shall we go get a drink?"
"I'm not drinking with you."
When I looked at her with a pathetic expression, Hera suddenly shouted, "Oh, why!"
But I wanted to ask back.
Why? Do you really not know?
"Every time you drink, you get all clingy like a slime... Ugh, damn, it gives me goosebumps."
"No, you can be like that when you're drunk."
"Yeah, you can also end up throwing people into the river when you're drunk. After deceiving them by using their pure heart."
"I've never done that?"
I walk on, ignoring Hera's retort.
To enter the Labyrinth, you need equipment, and you need this and that.
Arcanum-made arms are expensive, but there are many reviews that they are usable.
If I could buy genuine artisan-made ones, they would all be better than the equipment I'm wearing now. Except for the sword.
But, to look around at all of that...
"It's late, shall we just go to the inn?"
"Yeah! I told you, let's go in and have a drink."
"I'm not drinking."
We moved our steps back to the inn.
Since we had time, I was thinking of soaking in the bath for the first time in a while and scrubbing off the dirt.
But when we arrived at the 「Blue Steam Pipe」 where we were staying, I heard some noisy sounds.
It was definitely not the kind of cheerful sound that naturally comes from an inn with a tavern on the first floor.
"Ugh."
"Argh! Someone please treat this..."
"Ouch..."
Open door, people gathered.
Since I had to go in anyway, I pushed people aside and poked my head in, and the guards of Arcanum were in the inn.
In front of the guards, I could see tables that were a total mess and overturned glasses, etc.
I could guess what the situation was just by looking.
'Fighting and drinking even after coming to an inn like this. Fucking Middle Ages land.'
I clearly picked a pretty good inn because I hate this kind of bullshit, but since they are sitting here doing this, well.
As I was shaking my head, a long-haired young healer standing next to the guards approached the guys who were fighting and lying down.
"Argh, it hurts!"
"Please hold on for a moment."
Udu-duk, the sound of bones being set. It was a movement that looked like treatment if you glanced at it, but he wasn't starting with the person lying at the very front.
"Huh."
It was a sight that caught my eye quite a bit.