March of Death
Satou here. In online multiplayer games, the act of leading a group of monsters over to other players is called a “train.” It’s a huge pain, so nobody likes a player who does it.
“Ooh! Now, this is how a labyrinth entrance is supposed to be!”
“Mm.”
Once we passed through the west gate, there was a staircase leading about fifteen feet down, ending in a tall, wide semiunderground tunnel large enough for a four-ton truck to drive through.
Tama and Pochi silently shifted closer to me, possibly remembering their time in the Seiryuu City labyrinth.
They were looking around alertly at all times, their usual carefree demeanors gone.
This seemed to affect the other girls, who also started to look more serious.
It’s not good to worry too much, but this level of caution was probably fine.
Latticed windows near the ceiling let in some light—not enough that you could read a book easily but enough that you could walk without a torch or lantern.
Beyond the latticed windows, we could occasionally see the feet of patrolling soldiers.
According to my map, this place was called the Path of Death and was technically not part of the labyrinth.
The corridor turned a corner about a hundred feet away, so we couldn’t see the entrance to the labyrinth proper. There was a sliding iron gate near the corner that could be closed in case of emergencies.
Between this and the patrolling soldiers, they had certainly taken plenty of measures against escaping monsters.
Hmm?
I saw on my radar that four explorers were approaching from ahead of us.
Their levels were pretty low, around 7 to 9—no, if an average knight was level 10, I supposed that might make them mid-level explorers.
One of them appeared to be severely wounded.
“Someone’s comiiing?”
“I smell blood, sir.”
Tama and Pochi were the first to notice the explorer group’s approach.
Before long, we saw them round the corner.
“Nana, protect Arisa and Lulu,” Liza ordered immediately.
“Understood.”
What about Mia? I wondered, but then I saw that Liza was moving in front of Mia herself.
“I’m Jejeh of Red Ice! But if you wanna fight, it’ll have to be some other time. We’ve got a major injury here!”
The young man in the lead waved at us as he shouted. “Red Ice” seemed to be his party’s name.
I couldn’t see the injured person’s face from here, but his armor was broken, and the shirt wrapped around the wound was dripping with blood.
“Yikes, that looks really bad…”
“Master?”
Arisa and Lulu trembled at the sight.
They’d seen all kinds of robbers and pirates get injured, but what with the darkness and general atmosphere of this place, maybe they were projecting onto the injured party this time.
“Satou?”
Mia looked at me for permission to use Healing Magic, but I held up a hand to stop her.
“My name is Satou, a new explorer. Please use this medicine if you like.”
With that, I pulled out two watered-down magic potions from my Garage Bag.
At their level, this should be more than enough.
“Sorry, but we don’t have any money on hand. We can pay you once our leader catches up with us from sellin’ the cores. Is it too much to ask to let us use that medicine in advance?”
“No, go right ahead.”
I wasn’t planning on charging them in the first place, so I just nodded and gave the vials to Jejeh.
“Huh? Are these magic potions?”
“Yes, that’s right. More importantly, you’d better have your friend drink them right away.”
“Right. We owe ya one.”
The first vial restored nearly 60 percent of the injured person’s health. I couldn’t see because of the fabric wrapped around it, but the wound had probably closed.
“…Ahhh, I feel better already. Thank you, young man,” the explorer said in a husky voice as Jejeh steadied him on his feet.
He tried to stand up on his own, but the blood loss sent him falling back into Jejeh’s arms. These low-grade potions didn’t restore lost blood. Only resting for a while would fix that.
“Well, we’ll be on our way.”
“W-wait a minute. We haven’t paid you yet…”
“It was a gift from someone else. Please don’t worry about it. Until we meet again, if fate wills it so.”
We couldn’t stand around doing nothing, so I ushered my group down the hall.
From behind me, Jejeh warned, “There’s a rogue soldier mantis roaming in section 4-1. Make sure you keep your distance!” I thanked him with a wave of my hand.
After seeing that gruesome injury, Lulu and Mia looked pale.
Arisa had lost some of her enthusiasm, too, but not as much as the others.
“Would you rather call it quits for today, you two?”
“N-no, I’m all right.”
“’Mfine.”
The two of them were obviously putting on brave faces, so I held their hands as we walked through the hall.
If they didn’t feel better by the time we reached the entrance to the labyrinth, I decided we would turn back there.
Before long, though, they started smiling again. I guess I was worried for nothing. Maybe it was holding their hands that cheered them up.
“We’re heeere?”
“It’s a gate with a scary face, sir.”
“Is that the gate into the labyrinth?”
“Probably.”
At the end of the path was a large open room, with a fifteen-foot-tall door looming directly ahead.
The door was made of some mysterious jet-black metal, with a red ogre face carved into the surface.
There were several levels of steps in front of the gate, with a stone counter set in front.
On the other side of the counter were several explorers’ guild staff, plus four high-level guards, including a magic user.
At the counter was a young man who appeared to be an explorer, having some kind of dispute with a female guild employee about the price of the cores he was selling.
“Is that the leader of the people we ran into before?”
“Looks that way.”
Examining our surroundings, I saw children of various races sitting in a corner on the other side of the room from the counter.
They were all wearing simple, shabby clothing, none of them with any weapons or armor.
According to the detailed information from my AR, these kids were bag carriers, all level 3 or below.
Unlike the friendly kids we’d met outside, though, these ones didn’t try to approach us.
“Kiiids?”
“Lots of children, sir.”
“Mrrr?”
Pochi, Tama, and Mia tilted their heads in bewilderment.
The obviously unplanned move was in such perfect unison that I couldn’t help smiling. Arisa looked annoyed that she hadn’t gotten in on the action.
While none of the bag-carrying children spoke to us, their eyes were all locked on me.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Arisa murmured.
“Their eyes are scary.”
Lulu sounded uncomfortable, a sentiment I agreed with wholeheartedly.
Since they were all kids, I was worried that Nana would try to abduct them, but…
“They are not young enough, I dismiss.”
…she put my fears to rest.
“Master, over here!”
Arisa beckoned me over to a noticeboard near the counter.
There were several flyers posted on the board.
“Requests for monster parts?”
There were no requests from the guild; most were from artisans, shopkeepers, and so on. A small handful were from nobles or merchants.
The lower half of each flyer was blank, with dates, names, and ID numbers written in.
“That’s right.”
Instead of Arisa, the person who answered my murmur was a good-looking young man squatting next to the noticeboard.
According to my AR, he was the child of a Labyrinth City merchant.
“I imagine a young noble such as yourself does not need anyone to read or write for him, but I can direct you to the best deals if you like.”
He was probably here to earn some extra money. This land had a fairly low literacy rate, which would make reading and dictation services in high demand.
I handed the boy some change and asked him about these so-called deals.
“The meat of maze frogs and the carapaces of beetle-type monsters are always sought after, so I recommend those.”
“It is delicious,” Liza muttered next to me, nodding wisely. She must be remembering the grilled-barbecue party we had in the Seiryuu City labyrinth.
Glancing over, I saw that Tama and Pochi were nodding along seriously.
They were probably just imitating Liza.
“What about these ones, like the ant nectar or the labyrinth mushrooms? Those aren’t as good?”
“For the nectar, you’d have to enter a maze ant nest, which can be extremely dangerous. And I hear those mushrooms only grow in much deeper sections of the labyrinth. Neither of them is worth the risk.”
From the sound of things, this kid had learned quite a bit about the labyrinth by hanging around here earning pocket change.
“Also, these requests aren’t ongoing. Be careful. Just ’cause it’s here when you go into the labyrinth doesn’t mean it’ll still be up when you come back out.”
That made sense. They probably didn’t want to have their requests filled by a bunch of different people and end up with excess materials.
“Master, the woman at the counter wishes to speak with you.”
Turning around, I saw that the staff member at the counter with an intelligent-looking face was beckoning to me.
It looked as though she’d finished her exchange with the leader of Red Ice.
I gave the boy a tip as thanks for the information and headed over to the counter.
“Yes?”
“Forgive my inquiry, but are you a new explorer?”
“Yes, we’ll be in your care starting today. My name is Satou.”
“My, how polite. I’m sure they told you all about it when you registered, but this is where you can sell the monster cores you acquire in the labyrinth. You can exchange other monster parts from the requests posted on the wall here, as well.”
I listened respectfully to the staff member’s smooth explanation.
“Furthermore, this is only necessary for gold-badge holders, but nobles such as yourself are invited to report your expected exploration time here before entering the labyrinth.”
“I understand. We don’t expect to be long, but I’d like to request six days, just in case.”
I picked that length because it was the same amount of time we had reserved at the inn.
Still, I was guessing we’d be back by the end of the night at the latest.
Oh yeah, might as well ask while I’m here.
“By the way, who are those children over there?”
“Ah, they’re bag carriers, waiting to be hired by explorer parties. They change places with the children outside once every chime, but they’re not allowed to call to potential customers down here. The echoes are far too noisy,” she added.
Still, if you’re going to hire someone to carry a bag, why not hire an adult instead?
As I was about to inquire further on the subject, a group of ten or so explorers emerged from the labyrinth door. They were all warrior types, averaging around level 20. Three of them appeared to be bag carriers, but they were large-built beastfolk, not children.
While the rest of the party put down their things to rest, one explorer with a bearlike bearded face walked in our direction.
He was probably the leader of the explorer party, since he alone was level 30.
“Hey, Bena. Sorry to interrupt, but do you still have that request for boar-spider meat?”
“I’m sorry. Bearded Owl brought some in this morning, so I don’t think we’re buying any more right now.”
So the woman I’d been talking with was called Bena.
“Tch, those bastards again? Fine, then. Bena, cook this meat up for us, will you?”
“Very well. Rick, bring out the grill, please. Including coal, the lending fee is one large copper coin. For my labor, all I’ll charge you is a piece of the best cut of back meat.”
“Crafty little fox, aren’t you?”
Once the bear-bearded explorer handed a large copper coin to the clerk, he turned toward the children.
“Hey, brats! I’ll treat you to some meat, too, okay? Just make sure you pay me back with the praise of your choice before you eat, like ‘You’re so cool, Mr. Dozon!’ or ‘Thank you, Mr. Dozon!’”
At that, the children cheered so loudly that it hurt my ears.
Tama and Pochi seemed intrigued by this unfamiliar kind of meat, but it would be cruel to take food away from these malnourished kids. I signaled to them to refrain.
“…Shall we get going?”
Once we each presented our wood badges at the counter, we walked over to the labyrinth door.
I was half expecting an entrance fee, but there didn’t seem to be any.
“Open sesameee?”
“I want to open it, too, sir.”
“That door is awfully heavy, so it might be tough.”
As Tama and Pochi headed over to open the heavy-looking door, the clerk called out to them with a smile.
“Heave-hooo?”
“Hi-ya, sir!”
“…What?”
Tama and Pochi opened the door with ease, causing the staff member’s jaw to all but hit the floor.
That’s an overreaction, I thought, grinning as we entered the labyrinth.
“Uuugh, more staaairs?”
On the other side of the door was a wide set of stairs leading downward under a high ceiling. Instead of a straightforward or spiral staircase, these steps zigzagged from side to side. They had probably built stairs where there used to be a steep slope.
The banisters had slits at regular intervals, large enough for arrows to be fired down the stairs.
This was probably another measure against invading monsters. Each level of the steps had a gunning platform with a cannon draped in cloth. According to my AR display, these cannons fired real physical bullets, not magic.
There were two soldiers posted at each of the platforms.
The soldiers seemed to have a lot of time on their hands: They were playing a shogi-like board game. At least they weren’t drinking or sleeping on the job. The soldiers were all strong-looking demi-humans, like wolffolk and lionfolk.
We greeted them as we passed by, and while they seemed disgruntled, they still waved back with a friendly hello.
“I’m not gonna make iiit…”
“You can do it, Arisa.”
As I smiled at Arisa and Lulu’s exchange, I used my “Search Entire Map” as per usual.
This place is huge.
It was bigger even than the labyrinth ruins under the old capital.
Comparing it to my aboveground maps, it seemed to extend all the way underneath the enormous desert in the west of the Shiga Kingdom.
The map called the location Celivera Labyrinth: Upper Floor. That meant on top of it being wide, this wasn’t even all of it. There was definitely at least one floor below this, maybe even more.
I adjusted the scale of the map so I could get an idea of the whole picture.
It was like looking at over a hundred tubers connected by roots stretching in every direction.
And each one of these clusters consisted of anywhere from thirty to a hundred small rooms, with a large cavern in the center.
The explorers’ guild called this tuber “section 1.”
There are tons of monsters, too.
When I searched my map for monsters, I was assailed by so many results, it probably would’ve slowed down a computer something fierce.
Luckily, I was able to cancel the search, so I switched the target to only the few sections nearest to the entrance.
The first area, section 1, had more explorers than monsters.
This time, I searched for all the explorers within section 1 and sections 2 through 5, which connected directly to section 1, and found that there were more than fifteen hundred in total.
It was rare to see any of them on their own; most traveled in parties of three to five people.
The distance to sections 2 and 4 was considerable, but 3 and 5 seemed close enough that you could make it there and back in a day. In the latter was an expedition group of more than ten people, all from levels 20 to 30.
“Master, are there still more stairs?”
“We’re only halfway there. Maybe you should start lifting or jogging so you can build up a little more stamina, Arisa.”
“Uuugh…”
Arisa looked tearful, but I just patted her back lightly and continued down the stairs.
Unlike the large stairs that led to the Lalakie ruins in the southern islands, because there were other people here, I couldn’t just float us along with Practical Magic.
I didn’t want to spoil her too much, but if she couldn’t go on any farther, I supposed I could carry her.
“Touchdooown?”
“We’re here, sir!”
“Whew, finallyyyy…”
In the end, Arisa ran out of steam partway down the stairs, and I wound up carrying her on my back.
“Master, there is a door ahead, I report.”
“Mm, big.”
Sure enough, there was a fifteen-foot-tall set of double doors blocking our way forward.
It seemed to be the type that you pushed inward to open.
“Perhaps it’s to bar entry for monsters if they try to come through?” Liza said, pushing open the doors.
“That’s right, young lady. Welcome to the gates of hell.”
A short-statured foxfolk man in a military uniform greeted her on the other side.
“Whaddaya mean, ‘gates of hell’? Gimme a break!”
“Ouch, Captain!”
A muscular man socked the foxfolk man on the jaw.
He had the build of a troll or an ogre, but the captain was an ordinary human.
“Never seen you around here. This is the frontline garrison of the labyrinth army. Don’t hang around too long; just pick one of the three paths and head on in.”
Behind the men was a cavern around half the size of a baseball stadium, lit up by magic and filled with around three hundred soldiers.
They were set up in an encampment near the three doorways leading inside, with cannons and Magic Cannons pointing at all of them.
The other, smaller holes and doors seemed to have been sealed off, probably to make it easier to defend.
“Captain, the middle path is for garnet badges only, isn’t it? You gotta tell people these things.”
“Shut up. I was just about to.”
A second punch landed on the foxfolk man’s face.
Quite a violent bunch around here.
“The middle path only connects to a room called Hades, which leads down into the middle floor of the labyrinth. We can’t have any inexperienced explorers going in there and causing a monster chain rampage.”
A “chain rampage” was probably similar to the kind of thing you see in online games where people attract a bunch of monsters and run away, leading the monsters with them.
“Right. It’s a serious crime to cause a chain rampage in the labyrinth, so be careful, got it? Especially if you bring ’em all the way back here—you’d be looking at a hefty fine at best. That or getting sent off to the coal mines as a criminal slave.”
“Uh-huh. If it’s just weak monsters, the fine won’t be so bad, but if a soldier gets killed in the process, there’ll be more than just money to pay.”
I thanked the two soldiers for their warnings before we left the garrison behind.
The pair of soldiers walked back toward the stairs we’d come down.
“Those two were the kind of characters you’d meet in a tutorial level, huh?” Arisa remarked as she watched them go.
It seemed rude to insult them after they were nice enough to tell us all that.
“Don’t say things like that, all right?”
“Okaaaay, I’m sorryyyy.”
After a light scolding, Arisa meekly apologized for her rudeness.
“Master, should we proceed along the left path or the right path? I inquire.”
“Let’s see… How about this one?”
Since those explorers were kind enough to warn us, I decided to head toward area 4-1, where the “rogue soldier mantis” lurked.
My kids should be able to defeat it with ease, and it seemed unsafe to let a relatively dangerous monster roam around in a low-level area.
Incidentally, “area 4-1” referred to “area 4 from the area-1 entrance.” This naming convention had started because there were some places within the same area that could be accessed only by way of other areas.
“Hey, you!”
As we were about to enter the door to the main passage, one of the soldiers called out to stop us.
“You gonna be all right in those clothes?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine, thank you.”
With only my ordinary clothes and fairy sword, I probably looked like I was dressed a little lightly for the labyrinth.
“Besides, we’re only taking a look around today. We’ll come back once we’ve explored area 1.”
“Yeah, that’d be for the best.”
Nodding to the kind soldier, I entered the door that Liza was holding open.
“This is a huge hallway.”
Arisa and the others looked around in awe at the large space.
“According to the map I bought, it’s the great hall.”
“It’s darker than I expected.”
“It should be easy enough to walk, but we may not be able to detect monsters lying in wait.”
The only illumination was an occasional light source on one side of the hall at knee level that cast a faint glow on the floor.
They seemed to be the magic tools called “sign stones” that the map seller had told me about. Just as he said, the light turned from white to blue as we approached.
“Shall I use Mana Light? I inquire.”
“Good idea. It’s a bit dark, so please do light the way, Nana.”
“Yes, master.”
I probably could have used my own Mana Light spell, but it was so bright that it might look strange to other explorers. Leaving it to Nana instead was a better idea.
Nana’s Foundation ability activated, and glowing Mana Lights appeared on the vanguards’ helmets and the rear guard’s staffs.
I’d added a small ornamentation on the helmets to direct the glow from Mana Light forward.
“Master, how shall we arrange our formation?”
“While we’re walking, let’s have Lulu, Arisa, and Mia in the middle; Nana, Tama, and Pochi in the front; and Liza and me bringing up the rear.”
With Tama and Pochi in the front, they would definitely be able to detect any traps or monsters up ahead, and Liza could easily repel any possible attacks from behind.
The group should be able to fight without depending on me for now. It might be best to let them grow instead of being too overprotective.
“Fluffyyy?”
“There’s something above us, sir.”
The Mana Lights on Tama’s and Pochi’s helmets illuminated some tennis-ball-size puffballs floating around near the ceiling. There were quite a few of them.
“Mrrr. Spirit eaters.”
Looking uncharacteristically angry, Mia produced a fire staff from her Fairy Pack.
Activating Spirit Vision, I saw that the creatures were indeed catching and eating small spirits.
They must be monsters of some kind.
“Destroy.”
A fireball shot from Mia’s staff up to the ceiling, burning all the puffballs in the area into smoke.
“They’re pretty wimpy.”
Just as Arisa said, the creatures were burning away as soon as they made contact with the flame.
Once all the spirit eaters had been destroyed, Mia gave a little hmph! of obvious satisfaction and put away the staff.
“Good work.”
“Mm, thanks.”
Mia puffed up her chest, and I patted her head in response.
“I’ll search for more enemies with Space Magic.”
Arisa readied her staff and looked around.
“Mm, me next.”
“All right, let’s take turns, then.”
Mia also knew a Spirit Magic spell that was good for finding monsters, so she seemed to want to contribute next time.
“Here goes!”
“Aye-aye…”
Tama covered her ears just as Arisa unleashed the spell.
I felt a similar flow of magic to the Practical Magic spell Signal.
“Nope, nothing,” Arisa declared.
“Buuugs?”
“Little lizards and bats, too, sir.”
“No, not those,” she informed them. “I meant there are no monsters.”
“Awww…”
“That’s too bad, sir.”
Tama and Pochi looked around in disappointment.
They didn’t seem to know what to do.
“Don’t worry. There will be more once we go in a little farther.”
The pair perked up at that, so we continued our exploration.
Area 1 seemed to be picked clean by explorers—there were hardly any monsters.
Groups of monsters did use a few passageways to get around at times, but they weren’t connected to any of the paths the explorers were on. Thanks to that, they never encountered one another.
After I observed the map for a while, I saw a tunnel open up between two such paths in the distance, and a battle began. That must be how the monsters appeared.
“It is hard to see even with the light, I report.”
Various columns and stone statues lined the walls of the corridor, along with occasional sets of stone steps that didn’t seem to lead anywhere.
There were occasional curtain-like objects hanging from the ceiling, too, most likely dusty spiderwebs.
We also passed occasional hollows in the walls and ceilings that looked like small passages.
The ventilation-like holes near the ceiling seemed to be traversed by small monsters; occasionally, moth- or hornworm-like monsters would poke their heads out and consume some of the fluffy spirit eaters.
Both varieties were very low-level, so we left them for other explorers.
“Something’s theeere?”
“I hear fighting up ahead, sir.”
Tama and Pochi seemed to have picked up on a battle farther down the path.
About two hundred feet down, five explorers were fighting three demi-goblins.
Since there was constant noise coming from the ventilation holes near the ceiling in the labyrinth, it was somewhat difficult to detect faraway noises.
Even Tama and Pochi took longer to notice than usual.
According to the information on my radar, the battle wasn’t taking place in the great hall we were exploring but a path that branched off up ahead. It wasn’t too far from where we were.
When we passed nearby, one of the explorers called out a warning to us.
“These goblins are ours. Keep moving.”
“All right.”
I gave a brief response so as not to distract them too much.
It seemed to be a pretty intense brawl: Even though the demi-goblins were only levels 1 and 2, all the explorers were wounded.
The explorers seemed to be relative beginners, all around level 3. They were wearing hemp-woven vests and armor made of strung-together bones. They were fighting with short spears and light pickaxes that were pretty obviously homemade.
They were all brawlers, but since only a small percentage of explorers had any magic skills, that wasn’t too unusual.
While I was contemplating all that, Nana whirled around from the front of the group.
“Master, I have located a suspicious group of larvae, I report.”
“What do you mean?”
In an area where part of the great hall turned into a cliff, some children were peering down from above.
The eldest boy seemed to be an explorer, while the other five children were all bag carriers.
The kids were carrying what looked like a stretcher woven from grass.
“Big Brother Boma, behind you!”
One of the kids called out a warning, and the explorer boy and the others all spun around alertly and readied their weapons, which were really just clubs that looked more like sticks.
We must have startled them.
“Hello there.”
I moved my hand away from my sword and called out to them, but their postures didn’t waver.
I had the rest of the group wait while I walked over to the cliff.
Looking down, I saw that a group of young explorers was engaged in a life-and-death battle against some demi-goblins.
“Damn this stupid, fat goblin!”
The “fat goblin” in question was a actually slightly stronger type called a “demi-goblin grappler.”
“Guess I gotta use my trump card!”
The ax user who appeared to be the group’s leader swallowed some kind of pill.
Then his movements suddenly became faster, and he went from a losing battle against the grappler to gaining a decent advantage.
According to my AR, the medicine he’d just taken was a pill form of Demonic Potion.
Considering how effective it was, it was no wonder that people would use it even if it was a dangerous illegal drug.
Although, since it was illegal, there had to be some kind of nasty side effect.
The battle was over soon after that, and the explorers began disassembling the defeated demi-goblins and taking the cores.
Finally, the group finished collecting the cores and left the demi-goblin corpses behind, moving on to find their next prey.
One of them seemed to notice the children and muttered a disgusted “tch, corpse pillagers” as they left.
Indeed, Corpse Pillager was among the boy’s titles.
“Let’s go! Grab ’em before any other monsters eat ’em!”
As soon as the explorers below the cliff were gone, the boy led the children down the stone steps with the woven stretcher in tow.
I was curious, so I called out to the boy.
“What do you use the goblin corpses for?”
“W-we sell ’em to a butcher.”
For real?
So they even eat demi-goblin meat in Labyrinth City…
It was all well and good that people were more willing to try monster meat than before, but I didn’t have the courage to eat anything so humanoid.
“I-it’s not like that! We don’t steal ’em! We only take what gets left behind!”
Misunderstanding my silence, the boy started defending himself.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t doubting that.”
“J-just so you know, we don’t eat ’em, all right? That’d make you so sick, your body’d go nasty and rotten.”
Realizing what I was thinking, the boy corrected me.
He explained that although demi-goblin meat wouldn’t kill you, it had a high chance of making you sick if consumed, so it was forbidden to take it outside the labyrinth.
“Is that what causes Goblin Disease?”
“I dunno. I don’t think so, though?”
The boy tilted his head and shrugged.
“So what does the butcher use it for, then?”
“They have a slime eat it and turn it into oil and bones.”
Oh?
I asked the boy where the butcher was so I could check it out on the map.
In a small room within the labyrinth, there was a lizardfolk monster tamer with the titles Butcher and Slime User. He was accompanied by four trained monsters called “oil slimes.”
It was fairly far away from here, which was probably why the explorers didn’t bother taking the corpses there themselves.
“So even goblins have a use in everyday life… Humans are amazing, hmm?”
“’Sright. They might make fun and call us ‘corpse pillagers,’ but without us, they wouldn’t be able to get bones for their armor or goblin oil for their lanterns.”
The boy exploded into a little rant. He must have a lot of built-up frustration about the subject.
“Besides, if we left those corpses lying around in the labyrinth, it’d be crawling with coreless and cursed monsters.”
“What are those?”
I’d never heard those terms before. I pressed for more information.
“‘Coreless’ are walking corpses without a monster core. ‘Cursed’ corpses don’t move, but if you get too close, they can grab your legs and curse you.”
So we shouldn’t carelessly get too close to corpses, either. Labyrinths really were dangerous.
“The fat ones are so heavyyy.”
“Help us out, Big Bro!”
“Wait a sec—I’ll be right there!”
The carrier kids were grumbling from the bottom of the cliff, so the boy turned to help them.
Before he left, I gave him enough copper coins for the group as thanks for all the information.
“Wow! You sure, mister?”
“Of course. Thanks for answering all my questions.”
“Heh-heh, anytime!”
I watched the boy descend the cliff in high spirits, then went back to where my group was waiting.
“The monster pickings certainly are slim in area 1.”
As we continued along the great hall, we saw many beginner explorers fighting hard against monsters and competing for kills.
“Master, the sign stones have begun displaying a new number, I report.”
“Fooour?”
“It says 1-4, sir.”
The trio walking up ahead had found a particularly large sign stone.
This seemed to be the crossroads between the path around the rest of area 1 and the branched-off path into area 4.
At the very edge of my radar’s range, I saw red dots.
“Maybe we’ll start seeing more monsters soon?”
“I’d say so…”
I nodded at Arisa as I checked my map.
The red dots were mainly maze ants. And tons of them, at that.
There were almost three hundred in total, broken up into groups of anywhere from ten to fifty.
There were also three parties of explorers and carriers fleeing from the ants, heading in our direction.
This must be the “monster chain rampage” the soldiers right outside the labyrinth told us about.
These monsters weren’t much of a threat to us, but their numbers were somewhat impressive.
To the other explorers in here, it might be a pretty major problem.
“…It looks like there’ll be plenty of fighting to go around pretty soon.”
“Let me investigate.”
Arisa seemed to detect that my response carried a bit of meaning.
“Me next.”
“Oh right, it’s your turn this time.”
We’d been alternating between Arisa’s Space Magic and Mia’s Spirit Magic for detection, so this time it must have been Mia’s turn.
“ ? Cowardice Sylph Okubyou na Kaze.”
Mia used an enemy-detecting Spirit Magic spell.
A yellow-green wind raced through the labyrinth, bringing information back to Mia.
“Satou, lots of enemies.”
Please don’t make it sound like I have a ton of people who hate me.
“People comiiing?”
“Sounds like bugs, too, sir.”
Listening with their ears to the ground, Tama and Pochi seemed to have picked up on the approaching explorers and monsters from far away.
“How many are coming?”
Arisa looked to me seriously, but I couldn’t help responding a little mischievously.
“You mean people or enemies?”
“Enemies, of course,” she snapped immediately.
“Three hundred.”
“Th-three hundred?”
“Master, we should retreat, I propose.”
“I agree with Nana, master.”
“Mm.”
Lulu clung to my arm anxiously. They were all pretty quick to make a prudent decision.
I supposed any meatheads who would want to fight a three-digit number of enemies wouldn’t do well in a labyrinth, where you have to conserve your energy.
“Don’t worryyyy?”
“We can do it, sir. As long as our master’s with us, it’ll be easy, sir!”
Oh right. I guess our own party has a couple of meatheads.
Tama and Pochi struck some rather strange poses.
I patted their heads. “What would you do if I wasn’t with you?”
“Run away, of course, sir.”
“Get outta heeeere?”
Hmm?
So they weren’t total meatheads—they just trusted me that much.
“Good answer. If I’m not with you, you should never try to take on such a large group of enemies, even if they’re not very strong.”
Our group had fought large numbers of undead and pirates on the sugar route, but I’d been with them, and it was never more than between three and five enemies per person.
Of course, the Skeleton King and Sea Lord we had fought in the Lalakie incident were far more dangerous.
“What if we have no choice but to fight?” Arisa asked.
“What do you think?” I responded.
“Hmm… Get to an advantageous position?”
“That’s right. Find a place where the enemy won’t be able to come at you all at once.”
“Yep, bottlenecking is a must when you’re hunting solo in online games.”
So that’s where she learned that…
In the MMORPGs I played, most people fought solo only against weak monsters that could be defeated in one hit, but I guess every game is different.
Now, we weren’t obligated to save explorers we didn’t know, but since we’d finally encountered monsters, I figured it was a good chance to get my group some experience.
“There are people running away from the monsters this time, so let’s help them by fighting, shall we?”
Giving an arbitrary reason, I suggested that we do battle, and everyone promptly agreed.
“Of course, if I wasn’t with you, you’d prioritize your own safety and run away, all right?” I added, just to be safe.
We went back down the corridor a bit to prepare for battle in an area with lots of rubble and raised ground that would make it easy to fight large amounts of enemies.
If the great hall were a river, it would be like we set up camp on a sandbank about ten feet high.
The part of the ground that would be on the bottom of the river was rife with rubble, making it difficult to run. On top of that, the only way to get up to us would be to climb a nearly vertical wall or go to a slope in the opposite direction of where the maze ants were coming from.
The only problems were that it was difficult to see farther than a hundred and fifty feet or so into the distance because of the bends in the great hall, and since there were fleeing explorers, we couldn’t set any traps on their path.
I thought about using Earth Magic to make a better battlefield, but the labyrinth floor seemed resistant to Earth Magic for some reason, so I decided not to push it.
“Oops, I almost forgot.”
I cast Enchant: Physical Protection on all my companions.
Weak enemies or no, it was always better to be safe.
“Comiiing?”
“They’re here, sir!”
A party of two rabbitfolk and a ratfolk came dashing from the other side of the great hall.
Though they weren’t visible yet, there was also a party of human males behind them and a party of human women bringing up the rear.
“Run for it!”
“Hey, there’s a swarm of maze ants coming this way!”
“If you don’t wanna get eaten, you better quit standing around and get outta here!”
The beastfolk party, Swift Arrow, shouted warnings as they raced past us. They were all warriors, ranging in level from 7 to 10.
“Master, the next group is here, I report.”
Next to arrive was the male human party: three explorers and two bag carriers.
The leader of the explorers was level 13, while the other two were level 10. The bag carriers had good constitutions, but they were only around level 4.
“Come on, slaves! Don’t drop those jars of ant nectar!”
The leader, who had bandages wrapped around his limbs and neck, looked over his shoulder to shout at the two bag carriers. I guess they were his slaves.
“If you drop any, I’ll cut off your arms and feed ’em to the ants!”
Without responding to their master’s cruel threat, the two slaves silently followed the man.
“Besso, the Lovely Wings are falling behind.”
“Hmph. I hate to lose Jena, but as long as we make it out with two jars, we won’t be in the red.”
“Good point. Let’s make a break for it while they’re getting eaten.”
The pair ran past us as they held this nasty little conversation, barely sparing us a glance.
Unlike the beastfolk party, they didn’t give us a word of warning.
Finally, sometime after the first two groups, the female human party arrived. It was a group of four, with two explorers and two bag carriers.
The bag carriers were in ordinary clothing with carrying boxes on their backs, but the two explorers had woven vests with bone armor, wooden shields, and short spears with bronze spearheads.
Under the women’s vests were short shirts that exposed their midriffs, and their slender legs were clad in tight pants.
The glimpse of a tan line just above their ankles was sexy, too.
I didn’t know how they tanned when they worked in a dark labyrinth, but sexy is sexy.
By my standards, they were just wearing sporty outfits, but in the eyes of the Shiga Kingdom, I’d imagine they were practically half-naked.
“Master, the monsters!”
“They’re going to catch up to those ladies!”
Arisa and Lulu pointed at the maze ants closing in on the women.
One of the bag carriers seemed to have an injured leg, and the other one was helping her along, so they were just barely staying ahead of their pursuers.
“Oh no! At this distance they’d get caught up in my spell…”
“Mrrr.”
“I can’t get a clear shot with the Magic Gun, either.”
The rearguard girls bit their lips helplessly.
Behind the two bag carriers, one of the nearly human-size maze ants was about to catch up.
Because it looked like it might catch the women before my party could intervene, I used my Practical Magic spell Magic Hand to grab the closest ant’s leg and pull it to the ground.
Really, this spell was more like magical telekinesis.
At any rate, the fleeing party was safe for now.
“You there! Run away! The maze ants are on a chain rampage!” shouted one of the explorers from afar.
She was a slender woman in her early twenties, though she had a boyish voice. I wouldn’t quite call her beautiful, but her features definitely had a certain charm.
The other woman looked a little younger than the charming one and was a total beauty, with her black hair tied back in a neat ponytail.
The charming one was named Iruna, while the beauty was named Jena.
“Do you have a smoke bomb or a flash bomb? They’re catching up to us!”
“Sorry, I don’t!” I called back.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any items like the ones she was asking for.
I could probably use a Fireworks spell or something instead, but at that point it’d be easier just to wipe them all out with Remote Arrows.
“Miss Iruna!”
Turning around, the explorers gasped when they saw the two bag carriers about to be caught by the ants.
“Help us! The ants! The ants!”
“Big Sister, forget about me—just save yourself!”
As the two bag carriers gave a touching display of sisterly love, nearly thirty maze ants closed in on them.
Flailing on the ground a good distance behind was the one I’d brought down.
“Master?”
“Just a little longer…”
Liza was eager to help them, but I had her wait just another moment.
There, the line of sight opened up!
“Now! Begin the battle!”
“Hi-yaaa?”
“Haaah, sir!”
Tama and Pochi reacted immediately, flinging the stones in their hands.
The stones smacked squarely into the maze ants that were about to try taking a bite out of the bag-carrier sisters.
“Nana, use ‘Taunt’!”
“You idiotic worker ants! Go work until you are bald from stress, I declare!”
Nana’s “Taunt” worked, redirecting the ants’ aggression toward her.
…That was all well and good, but she didn’t need to touch on such a sensitive topic.
“...... ? Water Hold Mizu Shibaru!”
“Secret Ultra Dimension Snare!”
Mia’s magic and Arisa’s magic activated in unison, sending the charging maze ants tumbling to the ground.
I believe Arisa’s spell was called Dimension Snare, so the “Secret Ultra” part was probably her just getting carried away in the moment.
“Here I go!”
Lulu’s Thunder Rod sent an electric shock rippling through all the ants that had gotten soaked by Mia’s spell.
“Magic…users?”
I heard one of the rescued female explorers murmur in wonder.
“Tama, Pochi, let’s go.”
“Gotchaaa?”
“Roger that, sir!”
Liza charged forward, her Magic Spear leaving red traces in the air. It was amazing to watch her beat down the ants as if the spear were an extension of her body.
Tama channeled magic power into her two Magic Swords, taking down ants with dance-like movements. Against a large number of weak enemies, her two-sword style had the fastest rate of extermination.
Pochi, too, seemed to have gotten the hang of channeling magic into her sword; she moved with certainty, jabbing her weapon into the gaps in the maze ants’ carapaces.
“The best defense is a good offense, I declare.”
As her “Taunt” lured the ants toward her, Nana wiped them out, bashing them with her large shield and striking with her Soft Stun–infused Magic Sword.
She was making efficient use of the superhuman strength she gained from “Body Strengthening,” prioritizing pushing the ants back or disabling them over defeating them.
She must have learned these strategic movements from the elf teachers in Bolenan Forest.
At levels 4 through 6, the maze ants didn’t hold a candle to my group.
“Should we go help them…?”
“Amazing. They’re defeating those tough maze ants so easily.”
I heard impressed murmurs from the female explorer pair. At first, they looked like they were going to join the fray with Liza and the others, but then they stopped and stood back.
They must have judged that they would only get in the way.
“Maybe that flash of magic before weakened the ants’ defenses.”
Lulu’s Thunder Rod’s mob suppression mode must have looked like a spell to them.
“Thank you, Sir Noble.”
The charming-looking woman, who seemed to be the leader, addressed me.
We were still in the middle of battle, but that was fine, because it wasn’t like I was doing much.
However, it was difficult to talk while looking down at them, so I jumped to their level.
The beauty was tending to the younger bag-carrier sister who’d hurt her leg.
The older sister was trying to catch her breath, her hands and knees on the ground. The luggage on her back must be heavy.
The beauty had the “Emergency Treatment” skill; a potion would be necessary.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Could I ask you something, though?”
“O-of course we’ll pay you for your troubles as soon as we get back to town.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I was just wondering: How did you know I was a noble?”
It seemed strange to me that the people I met in Labyrinth City all immediately identified me as a noble and not as a merchant.
Unlike the time at the Sutoandell bar, I wasn’t wearing cologne, a wrinkle-free shirt, or anything like that.
It’d be one thing if we were on a ship or carriage with a family crest, but that obviously wasn’t the case here.
“Erm, well…”
Though she seemed a little flustered, the charming woman answered my question nevertheless.
“You’re wearing a top-quality robe in a labyrinth…”
I see. So my clothes are the problem?
I figured magic users would wear robes, too, though.
“Not to mention, you’ve got that expensive-looking sword at your waist.”
I made a point of making simple, cute scabbards for the girls’ Magic Swords, but I had forgotten to make a plain-looking scabbard for myself.
Or maybe it was the combination of the robe and the sword that was the problem.
“Besides…”
There’s still more…?
“Only a noble would be ecc—er, confident enough to bring a group of young ladies in dresses and even a maid into a labyrinth.”
She was definitely about to say eccentric.
Ahhh, now I get it.
I guess nobody but a noble would do something as “eccentric” as bringing a bunch of girls in dresses and maid outfits along into a labyrinth.
The rear guard’s dress armor had higher defense than the metal armor worn by knights, but you couldn’t tell that just by looking at it.
While we were having this silly conversation, the rest of my group had all but wiped out the enemy.
The 304 maze ants had been reduced to only ten or so.
Partway through, Nana’s “Taunt” had run out, and the ants had started to surround Tama and Pochi, but Arisa and Mia provided cover for them with magic.
“Tama! I made a wall on your left, so fight them off from the right!”
Arisa’s Deracinator spell was proving particularly useful.
With the advanced version, Mazemaker, the user could create a maze of Deracinator walls to entrap the enemy or release them on a whim.
It took a lot of magic power, but I’d told her to give it a try once the last of the maze ants caught up.
The final group of ants wouldn’t arrive for another ten minutes or so, but a lesser group of maze ants was getting closer in one of the small monster passages next to the main hall. It was a group of ten or so.
“The hand you hold your fork with is your right hand!” Arisa called out to her when Tama didn’t seem to know her left from her right.
“Aye-aaaye!”
That might not sound right, but when Tama and Pochi ate, they held a fork in their right hand and a spoon in their left instead of a knife and fork, so Arisa’s statement was correct.
“Amazing. Such a hectic battle, but nobody’s injured at all.”
“Huh? Seriously?”
The female explorers watched my group fight in amazement.
The vanguard had taken a few hits from the maze ants, but between their overpowered armor and my Enchant: Physical Protection, they hadn’t actually been hurt.
“Wow, you’re right. They must be garnet-badge explorers.”
The charming one misunderstood, but I couldn’t tell her actually, we’re wood-badge explorers when she was gazing at us with admiration like that.
“Rustle-ruuustle?”
“I hear something behind the wall, sir!”
Tama and Pochi had detected the maze ants approaching in the adjacent passage.
I was impressed that they noticed in the middle of such an intense battle.
“Satou, sign stone.”
Mia pointed down from the higher level, and I saw that the sign stone, which had been glowing blue in response to the bag-carrier sisters, was now alternating between blue and red.
It seemed to be detecting the enemies in the other passageway.
“Sir Noble! That’s a sign that a spawnhole is about to open up. Monsters are going to come out from over there!” the charming woman exclaimed.
The wall, which had looked like stone, thinned into a sort of membrane before a small hole opened in the middle.
“Oh dear.”
A maze ant burst out, threatening to go after the bag-carrier sisters, and I stepped between them in an instant.
Pulling out my sword from its scabbard, I sliced the ant clean in two.
I had to make sure to hold back, lest I cut into the stone floor as well.
“I-incredible…”
“What a beautiful sword.”
The explorer ladies were staring at me in amazement.
The bag-carrier sisters, meanwhile, retreated over to the explorers.
Hmm? What’s that?
There appeared to be a “spawnhole” forming behind the explorer party, too.
They didn’t seem to have noticed, so I called out a warning. “Behind you!”
“Huh? Another spawnhole? Let’s do this, Jena.”
“W-wait a second! Something’s wrong!”
Instead of maze ants, a single soldier mantis started forcing its way out through the narrow hole that had formed near the explorer duo.
This must be the “rogue” that Jejeh from the Red Ice party warned us about before we entered the labyrinth.
Unlike a normal praying mantis, the soldier mantis had six back legs and four front legs. Two of the front legs were small, for grabbing prey, while two of them were large and shaped like blades for battle.
The creature was about eight feet tall—definitely intimidating.
“““Eeeeeek!”””
Realizing what had emerged, the four women all shrieked in unison.
The beauty dropped her spear in shock, and the charmer even fell to her knees.
I couldn’t blame the Lovely Wings explorer party for their reactions. Iruna, the charming one, was level 6, and Jena, the beauty, was level 8, so this level-16 soldier mantis was a powerful threat to them.
If I was to make a modern-life comparison, it would be like if you poked at a bush thinking there was a dog behind it, only to have a giant brown bear jump out instead.
KUWKUWAAAAMWA.
The soldier mantis hadn’t made its way out of the hole yet, but it still unleashed a howl as if in mockery of the frightened group of four.
“R-run away, you two!”
“W-we’ll slow it down! Get out of here, quick!”
The two explorer women put on determined expressions through their tears.
Gripping their spears with shaking hands, they stepped forward, ready to buy time so that the bag-carrier sisters could escape.
I had to admire their spirit, but there was no way they stood a chance against this thing.
The last ant finally made its way out of the spawnhole in front of me, so I cut it down and hurried over to the female explorers.
“Sorry, but I’ll take this one.”
With that, I raised my fairy sword and blocked the soldier mantis’s swinging blades.
KUWKUWAAAMWA.
As the mantis howled again, I brandished my fairy sword toward its head.
I’d finally gotten the hang of not using “Spellblade” by mistake.
“L-let us help you!”
“We—we can at least create a d-diversion!”
The female explorers stood shakily on either side of me.
I appreciated the offer, but the fight was already over.
A black shadow fell over the female explorers, causing them to take a step back.
“Huh?”
“No way!”
The mantis’s head rolled across the floor, eliciting another small scream from the two women.
The soldier mantis’s body fell to the floor, spurting a puddle of green blood.
“Did you attack it just now?”
“You’re incredible, Sir Noble!”
Feeling a little bashful as the two explorers stared at me as if they were looking at a hero, I turned to check on the rest of my group.
It looked like their battle was almost over, too.
“S-Sir Noble, you’ve saved our lives twice now.”
“““Thank you so much.”””
The explorers and bag carriers all thanked me in turn.
“I’ve never seen such amazing swordsmanship.”
“Neither have I. Garnet-badge explorers are truly on another level.”
I felt like I might have gone a little too far, but this was normal for a level-30 mithril-sword user. I was probably fine.
I responded to their thanks with a light wave of the hand, then went over to Liza and the others.
“Master, shall we begin collecting materials?”
“Just the cores are fine. The ants’ carapaces are brittle, so they wouldn’t be very useful.”
“Master, forgive my insolence, but…” Liza voiced a rare disagreement. “I believe the carapaces could serve as material for armor and shields. The claws of the maze ants’ front legs are said to be useful for short swords, sickles, and so on.”
In Liza’s homeland, she explained, ant-type monsters were highly valued for their materials.
The shell of a maze ant could be broken by an ordinary bronze sword, but it was probably still sturdier than armor made of goblin bones. If they were potentially useful, it could be a good idea to bring them aboveground.
I didn’t care much about making more money, but it might be helpful for some newbie explorers.
“Meeeat?”
“We’re not going to grill the meat, sir?”
Having retrieved the cores from the dead maze ants, Tama and Pochi wanted to know if they should break down the meat, too.
“It would be best not to. Ant meat is so bitter that few people choose to eat it. Besides, if a child eats it, they could get food poisoning.”
I certainly didn’t want to give anyone food poisoning. Tama and Pochi seemed disappointed, but I had plenty of meat in Storage that I could cook for them later, so they would have to make do with baked goods and water for now.
“Sir Noble, here.”
Iruna, the charming female explorer, handed me some monster cores.
She had retrieved them from the maze ants I defeated. The soldier mantis was still untouched, though—maybe she didn’t want to go near it.
“Thank you.”
“It’s hardly enough to thank you for saving our lives, but we would be happy to help break down the corpses.”
It was kind of Jena to offer, but I couldn’t take her up on that.
“Actually, you should probably make a run for it. My friends here have detected with magic another swarm of maze ants headed this way. They’ll get here before too long.”
“You’re not going to run, Sir Noble?”
“We’ll slow them down for a bit first.”
I was trying to politely imply that it would be best for us if they ran away quickly.
“All right. Make sure you stay safe, okay?”
“We’ll definitely pay you back for today!”
Finally, the female explorers and their bag carriers got up to flee.
As they gathered their things, I noticed a jar of ant nectar in the elder sister’s box. Maybe that was what the maze ants were after.
“Master, the next wave will be here soon.”
“All right. I’ll recharge your magic.”
I used the Mana Transfer spell to restore the group’s magic power.
No one was injured, so I simply recast Enchant: Physical Protection on all of them.
“They’re here!”
After that, we fought several more rounds of maze ants. Once we’d beaten most of them, we decided to go into their nest.
Inside, we acquired materials like ant nectar, queen ant nectar spheres, and even naturally fermented ant nectar mead, but that’s another story.
Incidentally, the small group of maze ants that didn’t come toward us pursued the man called Besso and his explorer party instead.
Fortunately, nobody was killed, but they were severely injured when they made it to the labyrinth army’s encampment.
If I remembered correctly, leading a chain rampage to that area was considered a crime.
I took a little moment of silence for the grim fate that might await them.
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