Chapter 6
Chapter 6
I found out about the Skill Tree not long after I was dropped into this world.
I was just helping out with farming at a nearby house, when something got into my eye, so I kept blinking my left eye, trying to get it out.
And that was when I witnessed it.
'What the hell is this?'
That something like a grand galaxy was flashing right in front of my left eye.
If I were a normal person in this world, I might have thought, 'Have I lost my mind?' but I realized it immediately.
Because the structure was just too familiar.
It was the Skill Tree.
What happened after that, as I've said before, is too long.
So, to summarize, the Skill Tree is the reason I was able to come here. And although the Skill Tree brought me here, I ended up stuck on the 1st floor.
All thanks to the Skill Tree I just leveled up however I felt like when I didn't know anything.
"Are you serious about what you said yesterday?"
The cafeteria where I came down to eat breakfast.
I was sitting there, still half-asleep with my shoulders slumped, when Hera came down from her room and spoke to me. When I looked at her face, Hera twisted her expression.
"Figures, saying that again and then..."
"It's true."
"Like you ever actually meant it... huh?"
"I mean it. I'm really talking about going to clear the Labyrinth."
At those words, Hera's eyes widened.
She looked like she couldn't believe it, but I understood.
Like she said, I'd said that so many times.
Let's go tomorrow after drinking, let's go the day after, let's go after this request, let's go after getting this gear, etc. I'd been stuck on the 1st floor for about a year, but it had been even longer since I'd cleared the Deep Layer, so it was understandable that Hera was sick of it.
But this time, it was for real, for real.
Not fake-real, but real-real.
Hera, who had been looking at me with an expression asking what kind of change of heart I'd had, suddenly shouted as if she'd just remembered something.
"That thing from yesterday! Your Gold Coin! Is it because of that?"
"You could say that."
"What is that?!"
"It's complicated to explain."
It's not like she'd understand anyway. If that's the case, it's better not to explain at all. As I kept my mouth shut, Hera kept sending me suspicious glances, then finally shrugged and said,
"Is it going to have a negative effect on me?"
"No."
"Or a negative effect on future clearing?"
"Ultimately, no."
"...? Well then, I guess it can't be helped. If you won't tell me, then fine."
Perhaps her curiosity had been settled, Hera said that and sat in her seat. While I was eating the fried egg the waitress brought, Hera raised her hand and shouted for breakfast too.
"So, are we going down now?"
"We have to. There's no need to stay on the 1st floor anymore."
Just as I said, there was no longer any need to stay on the 1st floor.
Because the Reset Coin had appeared.
Of course, I hadn't been stuck on the 1st floor just to get this coin. Spending time doing box gacha to find an item when I only knew it existed, but didn't know where it came from or how to get it, was far stupider than playing the lottery where at least you know people actually win.
Therefore, what I had been doing all this time.
To summarize, it was 'Level Grinding'.
In this world, you get experience points when you kill monsters, but you also get experience points when you open chests. The experience points gained from opening chests are an absolute value, which is divided according to the grade of the chest.
Using this, I joined a 1st-floor Treasure Room grinding party and kept opening chests to gain experience points and level up as comfortably and easily as possible every day.
It might sound like a waste of time, but I had to do it.
In a reality where skill resetting wasn't possible, the only way to open up new skill routes was by leveling up.
'But now, I can reset everything with a single click of the Reset Coin.'
Then there's no more need for grinding.
Goodbye to the shitty 1st floor of the Labyrinth.
It's a bit sad that I'll barely be sleeping in the lodging now, but more than that, it's a better thing that I'm one step closer to escaping this world.
"But what was that item in the end?"
"Well..."
"Could I have used it too?"
"You could have used it, but it wouldn't have been useful."
"No, what is it? Now that you say that, I'm curious."
I've said it many times, but this world is a game.
So the residents of this world are also subject to the rules of the game.
However, they don't know what leveling up is (they just think they naturally get stronger as they fight). Stats or Skill Trees are automatically distributed and selected according to their life trajectory, desires, needs, etc.
So those who survive in the Labyrinth have no choice but to get stronger, and those who focus on one path have no choice but to get stronger.
But since I'm not a native of this world, the way the rules apply is a bit different, so when I close my left eye, I can apply the Skill Tree myself.
It's a quite convenient system.
Of course, that's also why I became a trash build.
'How was I supposed to know I'd end up like this.'
To summarize my current state in one word, I'm just a jack-of-all-trades.
While clearing the Labyrinth, I picked whatever I needed right away, and picked all the passives and actives that looked good. As a result, my level just got high without me being able to pick what I actually needed.
I have the level, the stats, and my experience, so I can do the basics to some extent, but that was it. There was quite a gap between my theoretical maximum power and my current power.
The Deep Layer of the Labyrinth was a place that couldn't be cleared in such a state.
If it were possible to clear it in such an awkward state, someone would have finished it long ago and ended it with 'I won, Labyrinth over!'.
It was obvious.
"Even if you're curious, it can't be helped. Just accept it."
"What?"
"The fact that I won't tell you."
"Ah, what the hell is it."
I slightly annoyed Hera and then shoved the fried egg into my mouth. I guess I won't be able to eat this delicious breakfast for much longer. No, I'll be able to eat it every time I return after clearing a floor.
But I didn't know how often that clearing would happen. Lower floors I could clear quickly, but the high floors and the Deep Layer...
'It's not like I can just keep not going because I hate that stuff.'
Sleeping while sweaty. Sleeping without a blanket. Sleeping without washing. And so on. It's unpleasant, but I can't live comfortably inside the Labyrinth, and if I just lie down saying I hate all that, I'll never be able to return to my original world.
Because if there's something to gain, there's something to lose.
It was unavoidable.
* * *
Hera ate her meal quickly.
In fact, most Labyrinth Explorers tend to eat their meals in an instant. Because if you eat slowly, the probability of dying just goes up. Hera was also a veteran Explorer (who had been resting for a year), so to exaggerate a little, her eating speed and drinking speed were about the same.
The place Hera and I went to after that was a place that anyone setting out to clear the Labyrinth had to go to.
It was the Explorer Guild.
... Actually, it wasn't anything grand, and it was the place we visited yesterday. The 「Silver Needle Guild」.
"Huh? I thought it wasn't a day for Roark's party to run... what brings you here?"
As we opened the door and entered, one of the female employees of the 「Silver Needle Guild」 who was cleaning with a broom recognized us and greeted us. While Hera hugged her, saying "Ray~!", I said,
"Obviously, I came because I have business."
"We're going to start clearing again!"
"Yes? Really? That's good news!"
The female employee who was happy as if it were her own business.
No, it was her business.
Ray is in charge of our party, and she takes a portion of the profit our party earns through the 「Silver Needle Guild」 as a commission.
So, naturally, it was her business.
Because it meant the guys who make her money were starting to make money again.
She would have to be happy, right?
"Then, you came because..."
"Right. We came to find a party."
Hera's words.
Ray shouted "Just a moment!" and quickly ran to her counter. It looked like she was going to bring out the list of registered Explorers.
Party.
As I said before, it's the most important thing in clearing the Labyrinth.
Whether it's the number of people or the composition. There are parts that need to be decided quite delicately.
However, there might be people who think like this about the number of people.
'Hey, dude, you took 16 people to the 1st floor, if you can take such a large force, isn't it just over if you take any useful guy and just push through with sheer numbers?'
Of course, you should just keep that thought to yourself.
There's a reason why everyone doesn't do that.
The Labyrinth limits the number of people.
First, there is one absolute rule of the Labyrinth.
The more people there are, the higher the difficulty, and the higher the difficulty, the better the rewards.
The reason I took 16 people into the 1st-floor Treasure Room was because that was the most efficient number of people for clearing the Treasure Room according to the Labyrinth's rules.
That number changes little by little.
Usually towards decreasing.
The deeper you go, the more so it is.
However, the normal floors from 1 to 50 proceed in a so-called roguelike form where one Labyrinth Stone (I'll explain later) creates one Labyrinth. Considering that one Labyrinth Stone is used per party, the limit on the number of people is loose.
But after the 50th floor, from the Deep Layer, it's different.
Everyone, every Labyrinth Stone shares the same Labyrinth.
The problem is that the rule I mentioned earlier, 'the more people there are, the higher the difficulty', continues here as well.
From the Deep Layer, if you take a large party in, not only that party dies, but other parties on that floor can also die. But if everyone dies together, that's actually fine, but it becomes a real headache if we don't die and only the other party dies.
You ask if it's okay since we didn't die?
What's okay about it? The other party will come to kill us.
If both parties lost people, you'd just hear 'You crazy bastards' and it would end, but if only one party lost people, they'd come to assassinate you at night for revenge. I've been on the receiving end a few times, and I've done it too, so I know.
To prevent such things, it was important to keep the party members as few as possible. Many enough to 'be able to clear', few enough 'not to raise the difficulty'. Appropriately.
Besides, there's one more reason to keep the party small... but this is a bit superstitious, so I'll talk about it later.
"First of all, you and I definitely have to go in."
"Isn't that obvious? Were you planning to leave me out?"
"Did I say that? I said we definitely have to go."
Let's give Hera, who is spreading rumors, a look that says 'don't talk nonsense'.
"Here it is!"
Ray put the documents down with a thud. Looking at the thickness, it seemed she had brought not only the people registered to her, but the entire file of Explorers without a party belonging to the 「Silver Needle Guild」.
She brought it really fast.
The goodwill is nice, but this is a bit...
"You want us to look through all of this?"
"Ah, ahh. Ah. Wait a moment, I'll look through it too! Should I remove the too low-grade Explorers?"
"Please do~"
Saying that, Hera stroked Ray's hair. Ray blushed slightly, but honestly, I wanted to tell her to just look at the documents instead of doing that.
Anyway, thinking about party composition.
First, there's a front-liner and an archer. Here, it splits into a 3-person composition and a 4-person composition; a 3-person composition includes a healer/ranged dealer, and a 4-person composition includes a healer/ranged dealer or healer/melee dealer. If we go with a 5-person composition, we go with healer/ranged dealer/melee dealer or healer/melee dealer/utility (like a thief or alchemist...).
Now, quiz time that even a monkey could understand.
Whether it's a 3-person party, 4-person party, or 5-person party, who is the person you need to find first?
Drumroll~
The answer is obviously a Healer.
Surely no one got it wrong, right?
I assume there isn't.
Because even my dog Pobby could answer this.
Of course, I didn't have a dog at home.
"First, just sort out the healers."
"Okay~ Ray, is there any high-grade healer? Someone who's free?"
"A healer?"
I wish there were. Ray quickly looked through a few documents, and then, as if she remembered something, she went behind the counter and disappeared. And while we continued to look through the documents, Ray brought out a few more sheets of paper and showed them to us, saying,
"I'm sorry. This is all there is... as you know, recently."
"There wouldn't be any healers. I know."
Healers are the smallest group among Labyrinth Explorers.
Of course, even if we say healer, it's not like there's a job strictly called healer. There are priests, alchemists, mages who learned that type of magic, and emergency medics (what is this guy?).
But if you're Korean, you've played games, so you'd know, but in any game with defined roles, finding a healer is the hardest.
This phenomenon is the same not only in games in Korea or on Earth, but also in this world, so healers were really hard to find. Except for priests who came to the Labyrinth for training and penance, healers who actually came to clear the Labyrinth were even harder to find.
"Do you know anyone?"
"I do, but you know. They'll all be in parties."
"That would be true."
Even if they don't aim to clear the Labyrinth, there are people who jump into the Labyrinth. Like that Treasure Room day-trip party we went to yesterday. There are many names for it, but I call them gold-farmers. Isn't that exactly what they do?
Anyway, in the past, Hera and I were in a certain clearing party, and in those days, we interacted with many Labyrinth Explorers. Half of them died, and the other half went to gold-farm. The remaining half went back to their hometowns saying they couldn't do this anymore, and the other half...
'Aren't healers.'
So, they're useless, right?
I was talking about becoming the best in the Labyrinth, right? Me.
You guys get out.
"So we have to find a new one, a healer... do you have anyone in mind?"
"No. In the first place, healers aren't needed on the lower floors, so why would I have anyone in mind?"
"Tsk."
"If we were going to go like this, you should have told me sooner. So I could have found someone in advance."
"I'm telling you now, originally we were going to go up much later. The plan changed suddenly."
"Hey, you should have told me that!"
"But didn't I tell you all the time? For you to go first."
I think about it, leaving Hera, who is fuming.
How should I find a healer?
"Ray, could you possibly post a notice at other guilds? That we're recruiting a healer for a clearing party."
"Yes! Understood! The cost is..."
"I'll pay later."
Her back as she runs off quickly at those words.
But well, I know well that there won't be any results.
Healers going up to the Deep Layer will already all be in parties.
I know this even without posting an ad. It's obvious since I haven't been a clearing party member for just a day or two. Even if one or two show up, they'd go to gold-farm, they wouldn't want to do 'life-risking' work like a Labyrinth clearing party.
"They're all low-grade, for sure. There's no one who's even been near the Deep Layer."
Hera said that, shaking a few sheets of paper, then slammed them onto the table. The paper is going to rip. On the crumpled paper, the Explorer's personal information, along with their purpose and the floors they want to go to, were written.
Unfortunately, this guy is a gold-farmer, this guy is a gold-farmer. This guy is also a gold-farmer.
It's truly the era of gold-farming. Woo woo-woo-woo gold-gold-gold.
What should I do in this situation...
In the midst of that, I came up with an idea.
It's not something that would make everyone immediately say "Wow, that's amazing!!" or "How did you think of that!!", "Rian-nim, you're so amazing!! You're so cool!!"
It was just a decent idea.
An idea I could think of since there are so few healers.
"What if we, if there are no healers..."
"If there aren't?"
"Shall we try raising one? Since we have to go up from the lower floors anyway?"