Chapter 4: Makoto Takatsuki Explores Labyrinthos
“We’re being followed,” I told Lucy quietly.
“What?” she asked, turning around. “You hadn’t noticed?”
“What?”
No, really, what?
“Someone’s been following us since before we entered the dungeon.”
Seriously?!
“Tell me that sooner next time!”
“I thought you’d already seen them... I’m sorry,” she apologized, hunching over.
“Ah, well. Keeping a lookout is my job,” I conceded. “Still, I’m glad you noticed.”
“They’ve been glaring at us, and they said something about payback for the sword, so they’re probably the guys we fought with back in the guild. To follow us this far... They must be pretty shady.”
C-Come on! This is pretty bad, isn’t it? They’ve been using the Stealth skill to follow us.
They must hate us quite a bit and are probably planning something fairly bad. My Scout skill revealed that ten of them were behind us.
I didn’t know how strong they were, but I could only hope that they were iron rank or lower. If any of them were gold or silver rank, we’d be done for. That was on par with Nina’s level, and we couldn’t beat that.
“This is a bit of an overreaction to breaking a mythril sword, isn’t it?” asked Lucy.
“N-Not really...” I’d actually asked Fujiyan last night how much a mythril sword would cost. Apparently, you couldn’t get one for under five million gald.
That was the average yearly income of an iron rank adventurer.
I guess I’d also vow revenge against someone who broke something I’d spent a whole year’s wages on.
“Let’s just get out of here,” I decided after a while. “Water Magic: Fog.”
Dense mist filled the entire cavern, and I even activated Stealth before I linked my hand with Lucy’s.
All we had to do then was let them pass by us. There were a lot of different paths through Labyrinthos, and it would be sneakiest to slip away behind them. Taking away their visibility and using Stealth should let us shake them.
“Damn, they saw us!” one of our stalkers exclaimed.
“Find them! They can’t have gone far.”
“Don’t get separated, there are monsters around.”
The thumping footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
“They’re gone,” Lucy said. With her ears, we could be sure of that, and my Scout skill also wasn’t finding anything.
I let out a deep sigh. “Sorry, Lucy.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“It’s because of my mistake.” I should never have cut his sword in the guild. All I’d wanted to do was make sure that we weren’t looked down upon, but I’d ended up putting my party at risk.
“What do you mean? It’s not your fault. Actually, it’s theirs, for being so easily wound up,” she said with a bright smile.
I was glad that Lucy was my friend. Although, I wouldn’t say that their anger had been “easily” triggered; I’d broken a mythril sword after all.
“What shall we do now?” she asked.
“Let’s go see the waterfalls like we planned. As for that lot... Let’s think about that later.” Honestly, I had a headache. “We can just ignore them, right?”
“I doubt that’ll work.”
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, so I decided I’d talk it over with Fujiyan once Lucy and I got back. In the meantime, we kept our attention on our surroundings as we continued to explore the dungeon.
Labyrinthos was the largest dungeon on the continent, and it had many places to see. Particularly famous among them were the Great Waterfalls, which linked the upper and middle layers.
“Wow... It’s incredible,” Lucy murmured.
“It’s like Niagara...” was my own muttered comment. I couldn’t help but compare it to the famous waterfalls of my old world. By my side, Lucy was just as captivated.
There seemed to be a huge subterranean lake at the foot of the cliffs. It appeared out of nowhere, and I could see it situated in the depths from our position on the upper layer.
The circumference of said lake was ringed by massive waterfalls.
It was impossible to see its entirety. Above the lake, there must have been a crack to the outside world—a shaft of sunlight cut down through the air and gleamed on the water’s surface. Altogether, it was a mystical scene.
I also noticed that huge birds were flying through that sunlight.
“What’s Niagara, by the way?” Lucy asked.
“It’s a tourist spot in my old world. They’re famous waterfalls.”
“Hmm. The bottom of the cliffs is the middle layer, right?”
“Yeah, we’ll be in trouble if we fall, so watch your step.”
According to the map, the cliffs would be around two hundred meters tall, using units of measure from my original world.
The lake at the bottom was located in the middle layer... Which meant that, at the center of this beautiful tableau, there were strong monsters.
At that moment, Lucy suddenly turned around, and my Scout skill reacted.
“Hey, they’re actually here.”
“I told you so. Rookies always turn up here.”
“Hey there, Macallan adventurers. We owe you one.”
The aggressive adventurers from yesterday had appeared, along with a bunch of others that seemed to be their allies.
I should have noticed so many people... I thought with a quiet rebuke to myself.
“So they’ve got a Stealth skill.”
“Sorry, Makoto, I didn’t notice,” Lucy apologized.
“Nor did I.”
Well, this was a bit of a sticky situation; I’d underestimated their tenacity. In the end, it was my fault.
One of them leered at us. “Don’t scar the elf. She’ll fetch a good price. Redheads are rare.”
“How good?”
“That’s what I’m gonna check, along with every inch of her body.”
So they were slavers.
“Come on, I’m sorry for breaking your sword. Let us off?” I doubted that would work, but I still tried it.
“You what? Nah, you’re dying down here. I doubt you’ve got much worth looting, but that dagger’ll sell well. That works for us.”
Yup, they weren’t interested in my offer.
“Newbie hunters then?”
Lucas had warned us about them.
“Cut them off!” The leader with the (broken) mythril sword ordered his men, and the others encircled us, putting our backs to the cliff.
We had the drop behind us, and nowhere else to run.
“M-Makoto...” Lucy whimpered, clutching my sleeve.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder to calm her down.
“Now then...” I murmured.
What should we do? While I was racking my brain for a maneuver or plan to use...I was assaulted with a crippling headache.
It soon abated, but a noise, almost a shrill whine, filled my head.
Was it... Detect Danger?
Detect Danger was a skill that notified me when I came into contact with low, mid, and high-level monsters. As they approached, I’d hear a noise in my head. The current pitch was something higher than high-level though.
Mary from the guild had once told me to be careful because some people could get headaches from the presence of monsters that were deemed “calamities.” That term referred to beasts that could not be fought alone because they were too strong, almost like a natural disaster. They were further categorized into village, town, country, and continent-level calamities.
For example, a village calamity monster could destroy an entire village... In other words, the strength of calamities was beyond comparison... even to high-level monsters. I tightened my grip on Lucy.
“Makoto...?”
“Ohh, you some kinda white knight protecting the girl? How brave.” The man spoke, but I didn’t really parse it.
Where?
Where was it?
Where was it coming from?
I refused to let my guard down, and instead, surveyed the area.
Then, it appeared.
The air itself shook from its bellow. Suddenly, a huge creature burst up from the ground, just between the shady adventurers and us.
“A dra...gon?” Lucy muttered.
None of the adventurers could react.
“Every dragon is a calamity, so if you see one, just run.” Lucas had once told us this at the guild stall.
Lucy and the others were all staring confusedly at it. The beast had craggy scales, almost like rock, and they were all a dark brown in color, except for a few splashes of green across its body, which looked like emeralds.
Is this...an earth dragon?
Its mouth looked big enough to swallow anything and was filled with fangs.
This thing was the pinnacle of monsters.
As I gazed upon it, the emotion I felt was...wonder.
“Wow...”
It was a dragon. A real dragon!
The shock I felt running through my body was even greater than the one I’d experienced when we’d first arrived in this world.
This was the king of monsters, the one that had captured the princess in the first RPG I’d ever played. I’d always wanted to see one. And right now, it was close enough that I could almost touch it.
This world is amazing...
I was probably distracted for a few seconds.
“Makoto! We need to run!” Lucy shouted.
In my head, I heard the goddess say, Pull yourself together!
Lucy’s scream and the goddess’s scolding overlapped, and they finally brought me back to my senses. The other adventurers had rallied themselves too, just enough to yell and run.
Will you challenge the dragon?
Yes
▶No
I couldn’t help but snark at the option RPG Player was giving me.
Don’t be stupid.
I held on tight to Lucy, and without hesitation, threw us off the cliff.
“Whaaaaaaaaaa?!”
With Lucy’s scream ringing in my ears, I let myself pass through the waterfall. In an instant, I was buffeted by violent currents.
Water Magic: Flow!
I calmly used magic to control the water, in order to mitigate the shock of the fall. Luckily, the lake was deep, so we didn’t hit the bottom. Then, we just carried on through the churning water.
Though the lake was dark, and I couldn’t see anything, my Scout skill revealed the monsters around us.
There are so many... Well, this is the middle layer.
Just a rough glance around using my skill had revealed quite a few.
First things first, we need to get out of this lake.
Lucy was mumbling something in my arms, but I ignored her for now and swam for the bank.
Once we’d gotten onto dry land, we hid behind a big rock, and I used Stealth to make sure that the monsters wouldn’t notice us. Now that we were relatively safe, Lucy was steaming mad.
“What’s the big idea?! You didn’t say anything about jumping off!”
“Well, if I had, our stalkers would’ve known too, right?” I reasoned. “Actually, I wonder if they’re okay...”
“Why are you worrying about people who were going to kill you? More importantly, what was a dragon doing there?”
“Lucas said that they were on the lower layer and that we weren’t supposed to go there...”
“So it came to us on the top layer...that’s not fair.”
“Nope. Iron ranks don’t stand a chance against it.”
We sighed.
“What do we do now?”
“Get back to the top, right?” Lucy asked.
“Well, yeah, but we don’t know where to go.”
“What? Can’t we just use your magic to go back up the waterfall?”
“I’m not going to be climbing waterfalls any time soon,” I stated. Even when we were just falling into it, I could barely keep us uninjured.
“Are we in trouble?” she asked.
“Well, we’re not in the best situation. Let’s just dry off first.”
I used Evaporate on both of our clothes. If we let the dampness chill us, then we’d be slower, and we’d lose our stamina. We did have two days of provisions on hand, but we hadn’t been intending to go on a full expedition, so those were the extent of our supplies.
“Let’s search for a way back up,” I suggested.
“It’s all waterfalls though.”
“There are breaks in the water here and there, so we can take a look around and avoid the monsters.”
We explored around the lake. However, no matter where we looked, there were only cliffs and waterfalls to be found. We spent about half a day searching like that. It was depressing work, but at least there was something to distract us from it.
“It really is a beautiful sight,” I said. The waterfalls were probably the main reason for that.
“Um,” Lucy looked at me oddly. “I thought the same until that dragon appeared, but I think you look at things a bit oddly.”
“Do I?”
“You do! You were fascinated by the dragon, you weirdo. Do you just love danger?”
Hmm, well, I’d try to deny that...but I wasn’t sure that I could.
“You’re always looking around the dungeon like you’re sightseeing too,” Lucy pointed out. “You don’t have a good enough sense of danger.”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be more careful.”
“I hope you will.”
Our search continued alongside our idle chatter. However, there was no sign of a path back toward the surface. We were now pretty tired and had decided to take a longer break.
That...was when we met her.
“U-Um... Are you adventurers?” an unfamiliar girl asked us.
We were in the middle of Labyrinthos, next to a lake, and the both of us had been taking turns keeping watch. We’d just decided to move on when she appeared.
“Oh?” Lucy spoke.
I just stared steadily at the unfamiliar woman.
The girl was young, with pale skin and unkempt hair. She had refined features though. Her clothes were tattered, falling apart in places, and exposing her shoulders. She looked like she had met some terrible fate.
“Please...help me. I’ll do whatever you want to thank you...” She pleaded this in an almost silent voice.
Her approach toward us was unsteady as if her legs were tangled beneath her.
“Are you okay? Did you get separated from your friends?” Lucy looked worried and was about to run over to her, but I grabbed her arm.
“Makoto? What’s up?”
I didn’t answer.
“She’s just a beat-up girl... You’re not really going to ask her for anything, are you?” Lucy’s expression had turned to anger.
“U-Umm...if I can do it, I will...” the girl continued to plead.
“It’s fine, we’re all in trouble here! You don’t need to thank us! Makoto, let go!”
I let out a deep sigh.
“Come on! I know I’m softhearted! Whatever. I didn’t think you were so unfeeling. I’ll just—”
“Lucy, she’s a monster,” I interrupted.
Sense Danger had been blaring the entire time.
“Wha?” Lucy gaped.
“Tch!” the girl exclaimed, and her pitiful expression morphed into hatred.
“Oh, you’re an arachne.” I hadn’t seen one before. It was a monster with the top half of a beautiful girl and the bottom of a massive spider. Its grotesqueness really made an impact.
“Kyaaaah!” Lucy screamed.
“If you’re scared of spiders, get back,” I warned.
“N-No! I was just surprised. I’m not frightened!”
Suddenly, the arachne leaped forward to attack.
Hmm, what to do?
For starters, how about some Water Magic: Ice Needle? I cast the spell quickly, stabbing ice through the arachne’s eyes.
It screeched out in pain.
“There are spider eyes on its body too,” I noticed. “Can it see through them?”
“What’s with that calm observation?! Ground Magic: Stone Shot!” Lucy swung her staff and launched a boulder so large that it would take both arms to carry.
I heard an unpleasant squelch as it slammed into the arachne. The beast stopped moving where it was now pinned.
“Is it dead?” Lucy asked.
“Hmm, might just be faking it... Let’s check.”
Water Magic: Ice Needle.
The arachne screamed out again as the needles stabbed through more of its eyes. Yup, it’d just been playing dead.
“Lucy, if you would.”
“No mercy, huh? Imbue Flame.”
Lucy cast a spell that imbued the boulder with fire. There was a womf and an unpleasant smell. Still crushed beneath the now-flaming boulder, the arachne’s legs started kicking all around.
Finally, it stopped moving.
“Good work, Lucy.”
“What’s with that? She gave me a real shock...”
“Mary told us that there were monsters in the middle layer that could pass for humans. Arachnae, lamiae, harpies, and also some undead. We need to pay attention.”
“I would never mistake a zombie for a human.”
“I think vampires are more like—” I started to say, before pausing. “Wait, Lucy, stop.”
I’d heard a strange noise. Like lots of things crawling.
“H-Hey, Makoto...”
Lucy had noticed too.
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
They weren’t human footsteps. It was bugs. The sound of bugs crawling.
“Say... Are we...?” Lucy asked, her voice shaking.
“Yeah, we’re surrounded,” I answered wearily.
Spiders with feminine upper halves appeared around us in groups. All of them had gleaming eyes that peered our way. I even saw a few children licking their lips.
You know how they call some women “man-eaters”? Well, it was literal here!
“So are we...”
“In a nest of arachnae, I guess.”
“Please, no more...”
Was Lucy one of those girls who hated bugs? Well, in this case, I think anyone would; I was struggling with the sight in front of us as well.
“Let’s get out of here.”
The arachnae were gradually closing the distance.
“H-How?” Lucy asked with a pale face.
“Elementals, oh elementals,” I called. I was in a rush this time.
Fancy tricks wouldn’t work here, so I used the most powerful spell I could think of.
Water Magic: Tianlong!
A rushing water dragon swept away all the arachnae...along with Lucy and me. Elemental magic was fairly hard to control precisely, but I managed to direct it toward the lake at least.
Lucy and I hit the water, engulfed in the spell I’d cast.
“Puah! Well, that was a rough escape,” Lucy commented.
“We’re not away yet,” I told her.
The arachnae must’ve been bad in the water, as they weren’t swimming through the lake to get us. Instead, they were firing strands of silk toward us from the bank. If we got trapped in one, we probably wouldn’t be able to get out.
“Are there any more monsters?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah. This might be a little rough.”
There weren’t just arachnae on the shore. Orcs, cave wolves, and goblins were all appearing.
“Lucy, make sure not to bite your tongue!”
“Wha? Hyah!”
Using water magic, I sped us along the lake’s surface.
“Dodge!” I screamed.
A huge splash arced up into the air, and a massive snake’s mouth closed where we’d just been.
“A-A sea serpent!”
“There must be plenty of monsters in the water as well.”
“A-And there are harpies above us...”
There were indeed multiple harpies circling in the air.
“I-It’s impossible... No way we can get out of this...” Lucy’s eyes were hollow... I figured she needed something good to focus on.
“Look, the monsters don’t seem to get along particularly well.”
“What?”
The arachnae, orcs, and cave wolves were skirmishing amongst one another. In the water, the sea serpent dragged in the orcs, and their pitiful shrieks were drowned out by the waterfalls.
“Makoto!” Lucy cried out.
“Kya ha ha ha,” a harpy cackled as it attacked from behind.
“Too bad, saw you coming,” I said. RPG Player did give me a 360-degree field of view, after all. I lopped off the harpy’s legs with my dagger once it had let its guard down.
“Phew, that was close.”
Calm Mind might keep me, well, calm, but I was still somewhat flustered.
Makoto, are you okay? Noah asked.
“Not in the slightest.” Goddess, a little more guidance if you would?
“H-Hey, what do we do...?” Lucy asked, tightly holding onto my shoulder. There were the harpies above us, the sea serpents below, and other monsters like the arachnae on the land around us. We had nowhere to run.
It was the first time I’d been so surrounded by monsters.
I set Calm Mind to 99% and composed myself. If I panicked, we’d be done for.
You could escape on your own, the goddess suggested.
Don’t say things like that! I would never do that.
“Dodge!” The sea serpent had attacked again.
“Lucy, I’m going to focus on dodging, clear us an area on the shore.”
“B-But then you won’t be able to use water magic!”
She was right, I’d only just borrowed mana from the elementals, so I couldn’t do it again in a hurry. On land, I’d be useless.
“Dodge!”
I swung my dagger as I dodged another attack from a harpy. The slash caught it in the wing, and I saw it plummet into the water. There didn’t seem to be any end to them. If anything, there were even more than before.
Monsters were fighting among themselves on the shore, dragging more and more into the fray.
This was bad. Real bad.
Will you escape alone?
Yes
▶No
Come on, don’t play around like that, RPG Player. No, just no.
“Lucy, we’re going to make it,” I promised.
“R-Right.”
I held her hand tightly and readied my dagger.
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