Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The 1st floor of the Labyrinth was always dark and cold.
It was the same no matter who was transported where.
"Ugh."
A light dizziness that occurs when being transported to the Labyrinth through the gateway.
A feeling that is familiar, but one I never get used to.
As I looked around, relying on a single torch hanging on the wall, someone next to me made a retching sound.
It was that Rookie from earlier.
"Did you jump?"
"Ugh, ugh."
"Guess you did. Well done, well done."
If you move violently, like jumping, when being transported through the gateway, your stomach gets twisted.
It was a fact I already knew, but let's give a round of applause to the Rookie for proving it once again. Clap, clap, clap.
"You made him do that again? You're something else."
The clattering sound of applause rings hollowly in the empty Labyrinth.
Hera said, stringing her unstrung longbow.
At that nagging, I stopped clapping and looked around; as my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, the people who had been transported came into view.
Hera, the Rookie, and one other regular member of Roark's party.
The Rookie kept whipping his head around with anxious eyes.
Judging by his state, it looked like he hadn't heard anything about this situation.
"Didn't you explain it to him?"
"He can just do it once we get inside. It's not like he'd listen properly if we explained it outside anyway."
"Hah."
The regular's answer was as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
I let out a dry laugh, but I had no intention of saying anything more than that.
In a way, it was a logical point.
In this world, human life wasn't expensive enough to teach such things one by one.
Well, maybe it would be different in another world or another game, but at least in this world, that was how it was.
In the past, I thought, 'Why on earth are they throwing away labor force into the ground?'
But that was just the perspective of someone looking at numbers macroscopically, and in reality, it wasn't that simple.
They say population is national power, but it's not like this is an RTS game where having a population automatically produces something.
If there is manpower, there must be jobs, but even with just farming, land is limited, so naturally, idle manpower is created.
That Rookie is probably that type.
Whether it's a farming village or a fishing village, he's probably the type who was forced out after loafing around at home.
In the real world, he probably survived by picking up odd jobs here and there.
But since this world has the Labyrinth, he must have been kicked out to go there and make a living.
"Still, since he's in, give him some explanation."
"Ah, yes. Newbie. Come here."
But still, since we've been dropped together, some explanation is necessary.
Hearing that, the member of Roark's party took the Rookie and started explaining.
First, due to the structure of the 1st floor of the Labyrinth, party members are transported in groups of 4, and since everyone is transported to the same floor, you just need to look around, defeat monsters, and gather at the promised location.
Then, you raid the Treasure Room, take the rewards from there, and the mission ends... that kind of story went on and on.
"So, you don't need to say anything else, just follow behind us."
"Yes? Yes. Uh, then the money... I heard that everyone takes care of their own share..."
"You have to take care of that yourself, you asshole. Do you want me to teach you that too?"
A grumpy answer returned to the ignorant question.
It looked like he had come after hearing dream-like stories at the agency, saying you take what you work for, so if you have the ability, you can make a lot of money.
He should have known by the age of seven that the world doesn't work like that.
"If you're done explaining, let's get going."
"Yep."
The regular, who was about to commit violence against the clingy Rookie, heard my words, pulled a torch from the wall, and stood at the very front.
The Rookie looked at us with a face like he was about to whine and cry.
What does he want us to do?
His gaze soon returned to the front.
It seemed he realized that whining to us wouldn't work.
The speed at which the formation moved was slow and cautious.
If this were a game world, I'd think they'd use an HP system so that even if you get hit by an arrow, only your health would drop.
In this world, even if you wear good armor and train, if you get headshot by an arrow, you die immediately.
The story of a knight who took down a Minotaur single-handedly dying after being hit by an arrow from a lowly Goblin grunt was a very famous tale.
Since it's a world where you can lose your life to a single stray arrow, Explorers had to be wary of even a single mob.
That was also the reason why there were so many people, even for a party exploring the 1st floor of the Labyrinth, which had been conquered countless times, on a day trip.
No matter how experienced you are, you can't beat sheer numbers.
The idle thoughts that were continuing like that stopped because of the hand Hera silently raised.
The party stopped naturally.
The regular naturally placed his palm over the Rookie's mouth.
Fortunately, perhaps he had some sense, as the Rookie immediately shut his mouth.
Hera, who had raised her hand, silently, slowly, yet without hesitation, nocked an arrow and drew it.
As Hera's hand released, the taut string, as if it had been waiting, sent an arrow flying toward the opponent with a whistling sound.
"Kehek!"
"Korlihohek!"
Screams and monster cries were heard from the darkness.
"There were seven, now six."
"Okay."
Hera's voice.
As I stepped forward naturally, the regular took something out from his waist and sprinkled it on the torch.
The torch flared up strongly with a 'pak' sound, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
While another arrow flew from behind, the guys who came running with a splashing sound were really not much to look at.
It was a Goblin.
Not just a Goblin, but a 'Labyrinth Goblin'.
"Gae-we-eu-eu-uek!"
I took a throwing axe from my waist and threw it, and the number decreased by one.
Goblins are a race that knows fear, but Labyrinth Goblins are 'spawned monsters', not humanoids.
The number of these tiny bastards that came running into the torch's range while making 'geureuk' sounds was now four, and I swung the shield in my left hand, crushing the head of one of them.
"Wark-a-kek!"
"Uwaaak!"
While I crushed another one's head, two of them went around the side and approached the other three.
The regular calmly kept the Goblins in check with a short spear, but the Rookie couldn't.
He leaned back and swung his club, but missed, and what slammed into the Goblin that rushed in at that opening was Hera's powerful front kick.
And that was it.
Seven were dead.
The Goblin corpses scattered, and in their place remained one very small Magic Stone each, one wooden stick the Goblin had been holding, and the old piece of leather they had been wearing (I don't want to touch it).
Ah, how mysterious, ah, how grateful I am, Labyrinth.
You give daily bread to the street thugs again today.
Every time I saw it, it was a sight that reminded me that this world was a game world.
"Eueuk... I, I'm sorry..."
The Rookie said while sitting on his butt.
There was no answer.
Because neither Hera nor the regular had expected anything from the Rookie in the first place.
If anything, it might have been a good job that he didn't hit an ally with his club.
I reached out my hand to the Rookie and helped him up.
"Thank y..."
"You missed a chance to make money. If you had caught even one, you would have made money."
The regular got one.
Hera got three.
I got three.
The regular shone the torch nearby, scraped up the Magic Stones and the Goblins' equipment, and then handed me the Magic Stones for the number I caught and my throwing axe.
The remaining monster equipment was his share.
There was no share for the Rookie.
"Uh, ek..."
"If you want to make money, don't think about leaning back and running away."
If he had at least hit a Goblin's head, he might have been able to get the leather piece, even if not the Magic Stone.
Well, it's all up to how you do it, isn't it.
While the Rookie shut his mouth with a complicated expression, the party started moving again.
* * *
Even though it's a place where day-trip parties are popular, it's not like the 1st floor of the Labyrinth is as narrow as a college student's studio apartment who just came up to Seoul from the countryside and got a 300/40 room.
It was big enough that even if 16 people came in and walked around for several hours, they couldn't see it all.
It was also a place where danger lurked enough to encounter a group of monsters once an hour.
Of course, nothing happened.
Because all those monsters became Magic Stones and went into my pocket.
Fifteen lowest-grade Magic Stones were still enough to be compensation for me to move my body.
Although not everyone made money like that.
To put it simply, the Rookie's face was dead.
He had encountered Goblins and other mobs several times, but all he got in his hands were a few pieces of leather.
Even that was something he got because the regular was a bit generous about his club missing.
"Ah, my friend, pull yourself together~"
The rewards obtained in the Treasure Room are somewhat evenly distributed.
But even if he takes that reward, in my opinion, that leather alone didn't make ends meet.
And perhaps even the Rookie, who isn't an expert in Labyrinth life, could calculate that much, as he was burning with a determined will to definitely get his hands on the next monster that appeared.
The problem was that it was almost over now.
"We've arrived."
"Yes?"
The sound of water that started to be heard slowly.
The sound of people murmuring.
Ignoring the Rookie's question, I walked forward with long strides.
It was the landmark of the 1st floor dungeon, the fountain.
Nearby, two parties seemed to have arrived first and were gathered near the fountain with torches brightly lit.
"Wow, that bastard Jark really had it easy."
"Are you jealous? You should have been lucky."
The appearance of the other party pointing fingers at the regular was not very intact.
They had many scratches and bleeding parts from repeating fights several times, and someone was even wrapped in bandages.
The regular joined his own side.
Hera and I sat down in a place with appropriate light, and the Rookie was standing awkwardly nearby.
"Don't you have any friends?"
"Ah, uh, yes. I'm completely new, so..."
"Try talking to those people. You have to be close to them anyway. If you want to make money by going in and out of the Labyrinth."
Even if you feel reluctant, you have to do it.
Especially to that regular who shared his share just because he swung his club once earlier.
But the Rookie just stood there awkwardly, hesitating, as if he was awkward or didn't know what to do.
Before I could say anything to him, Hera spoke to me.
"When are you going to start again?"
"Well..."
I should start exploring the Deep Layer, right.
But I had no intention of going today, or tomorrow. At least not within a week.
While I was organizing my thoughts, Hera continued.
"It's already been a year since we started doing this. We need to move now."
"If you're frustrated, go by yourself."
"Where would I go without you? What kind of nonsense are you saying."
"Nonsense, my ass."
"It's hard to find a vanguard as good as you."
"You're just lazy yourself."
At that moment, footsteps started to ring out.
People at the fountain stood up in a rush, but I didn't move.
Because Hera didn't move.
Sure enough, the one that appeared was Roark's party.
There were some traces of battle, and they looked tired, so it seemed they had been thrown into a tricky route.
Roark, who arrived at the fountain, drank some of the water a few times, then clapped his hands and shouted.
"Alright, let's get ready to enter!"
The regular party gathering in front of Roark.
External participants gathering hesitantly behind them.
The Rookie glanced over here and then headed there.
While Roark was waving his hands, moving people here and there, changing the order of the procession, and setting the formation, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
"Is that efficient?"
"Why."
"No matter how I look at it, it doesn't seem like a proper formation. I feel like there should be something more... effective, you know?"
"There probably is. They say other parties do it differently. But well, it's a trade secret."
True. Changing a formation that has already been proven effective and experimenting with another formation is a perfectly possible thing.
But if the price is your life, the story changes a bit.
In a soccer game, if you do something weird, you just lose points, but in a Labyrinth like this, if you do something weird, your head flies off.
"Let's go, sir."
"Stop using that tone."
Roark approached, having finished organizing.
Seeing that he keeps using it even though I told him to stop, I think I might really have to do something about it one day.
I stood up, brushing off the dust, and the formation was already established.
Roark assembled four rods from his bag and tapped the floor with them.
Bright light poured out from the end of the rods. Like a fluorescent light.
Roark lifted the rod and pointed to a corner of the Labyrinth.
The darkness lifted, and an eerie pattern appeared. It was the entrance to the Treasure Room.
"You all heard me, right? When it opens, advance according to the formation. No matter what happens, do not break the formation, do not run away, and hold your ground firmly. Got it?"
"Yes!"
"Then, opening it!"
It seemed he wanted to stomp his feet in time, but perhaps he couldn't.
The human wall stumbled and advanced little by little toward the room entrance, and the door opened with a creak.
I walked slowly and stood to the right side of the formation.
Hera took a position a little away from me.
"I just hope a Troll doesn't come out."
"Your words will become seeds. Be careful."
The door kept creaking, then suddenly moved wide open with a bang.
At that sound, a few people flinched.
Roark stuck the rod into the ground, lit a torch, and threw it into the darkness.
"Heeaaak!!"
Udududu.
The sound of monsters starting to run out began to be heard from the far darkness.