“Ha ha! Once a novice explorer wanders around the first floor and gains a few useful abilities, money will solve the problem of getting to the lower floors.”
“Money? Does the labyrinth take payment?”
—Ha ha!
Kerolf laughed heartily and took a swig of beer.
“You know there are four labyrinths, right?”
“Yes. I read in the booklet that there are four labyrinths in total, that this is the eastern labyrinth, and that it grants warrior-specialized abilities.”
“Right. This place specializes in warriors, and the west specializes in mages. The north specializes in summoning, and the south specializes in scouting. If you want to go down to the lower floors, get more magic stones, and gain more abilities, you just hire an explorer who’s obtained scout abilities from the southern labyrinth.”
Dorn thought it was a reasonable method, but a question occurred to him, so he asked.
“But, Mr. Kerolf. Why would a scout explorer with enough abilities to find their way even after being dropped at random into a vast labyrinth come all the way to the eastern labyrinth, where they can’t obtain scout abilities? I read in the booklet that explorers who have already gained specialized abilities have an extremely low chance of gaining another type of specialized ability.”
“You read that booklet thoroughly. It’s true that explorers with multiple specialized abilities are very rare, but they don’t not exist. And in truth, even they have to form parties with explorers who possess other specialized abilities if they want to explore the labyrinth without problems. So explorers with plenty of money hire explorers with other specialties and grow without stagnating, while explorers who are a little short on money, once they’ve acquired a decent set of abilities, get dispatched to other labyrinths. To broker those explorers, every labyrinth city in the east, west, south, and north has a guild for specialized abilities.”
“Ah… so that’s why…”
Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Warriors needed wide-area firepower and scouting; scouts needed defense and firepower; mages needed defense and scouting. The deeper one went into the labyrinth, the more necessary it became to form a party for stable exploration.
“And even if it isn’t the specialized labyrinth suited to you, you can still obtain common abilities. It’s like taking turns helping each other out while you’re at it. The common abilities you might get by luck aren’t something to ignore, either. It’s worth trying.”
Dorn and Kerolf talked for a while as they ate stew and drank beer.
◆ ◆ ◆
Dorn, dressed lightly after taking off his quilted armor, entered his room at the Novice’s Furnace inn.
After finishing a useful conversation with Kerolf, who had readily shown him goodwill, Dorn’s complicated thoughts had settled. He paid the innkeeper and decided to rest for just one day.
He had just returned from using the communal shower attached to the inn.
Shaking out his still-damp hair, he reviewed his plans going forward.
‘I don’t have anyone to lean on, so first I need to save money. If I want to reach the depths, a few coins won’t be nearly enough.’
According to Kerolf, the labyrinth underwent one major change in the depths.
Before the depths, each labyrinth was separate depending on its entrance, and the specialized abilities granted by each were distinct. But the labyrinth in the depths was said to converge into one place no matter which entrance one entered from.
At that point, parties tied together by money and employment were dissolved, leaving only parties that truly shared one another’s fate.
Naturally, the specialized abilities of explorers also rose beyond a certain level.
Thus, the process of an explorer’s growth was standardized to some degree.
First, small groups challenged the lower floors, gathered seed money, and tried to obtain abilities. Once they reached a certain level, they used the seed money they had saved to hire explorers of other classes—especially scout explorers—into their party, growing into explorers capable of being dispatched to other labyrinths.
After that, they went on dispatches, saved money again, and obtained common abilities.
Explorers who were prepared—with money—spent lavishly in the labyrinth suited to them until they grew to a level where they could enter the depths, becoming deep-layer explorers.
And the explorers who received that scattered money returned to the labyrinth suited to them and became deep-layer explorers themselves.
‘Others stagnate while they’re dispatched, but I might be different. Because of the 【Self-Contemplation】 ability, I receive three choices when I obtain an ability. I might be able to keep growing even during dispatches.’
Dorn gave up on the idea of exploring the labyrinth alone like a lone wolf.
The biggest reason was that no matter how much money one person gathered on the first floor, it would be difficult to hire a scout explorer in order to reach the second floor.
After resting in this reasonably comfortable inn room, he intended to explore alone just once more, then join the Labyrinth Guild and the Warrior Guild to look for companions.
“First, let’s get some rest—!”
After shaking out his still-damp hair once more, he flopped down onto the provided bed.
●
Stamina: 23→24/50
●
When he closed his eyes, he felt—and saw—his stamina gradually recovering.
◆ ◆ ◆
Having shaken off all kinds of stress that had accumulated without him realizing it through a deep sleep, Dorn was packing his things before the sun had even risen.
Lastly, he sniffed the inside of the leather cap he used in place of a helmet and pulled it down over his head.
Anyone who had served in the military would know, but when it came to the smell of headgear, a certain amount of compromise was necessary.
In front of the doorknob of his inn room, he felt the quilted armor he had roughly washed the day before.
The quilted armor, touched by his gloved hand, was more or less dry.
Dorn, now back in peak condition, stepped out of the inn room and headed toward the labyrinth.
The stamina he checked with his eyes closed was a staggering 49.
◆ ◆ ◆
Dorn stood near the entrance portal of the labyrinth.
He had assumed the Labyrinth Guild would operate twenty-four hours a day and had planned to make an explorer’s badge, join the guild, and then begin exploring, but there had been a hitch.
The customers the Labyrinth Guild truly gave preferential treatment to were deep-layer explorers, and it seemed the deep layers of the labyrinth shared day and night with the outside world.
In other words, in the morning before the sun had even risen, the guild employees had not yet come to work.
It wasn’t a problem. The order had simply changed.
With the money he had left after paying for lodging and food, he bought only preserved rations from a shop that had opened and packed them away.
Banks and administrative offices kept strict hours, but privately run shops had no real day or night.
‘I’ll make one more haul and pay it back.’
Dorn’s leather pouch was light.
He placed the hand not holding the lantern onto the portal.
◆ ◆ ◆
Dorn’s lantern swept quickly in all directions.
The sight of Dorn carrying out his own routine made him look fairly accustomed to the labyrinth.
His hand opposite the one holding the lantern hesitated between shield and club, then gripped the club.
Moderately tense, Dorn once again advanced in a random direction.
The lantern light shining on the floor ahead groped over it like Dorn’s fingertips.
—Suuup. Huu…
When he found an intersection, Dorn sharpened his senses another degree.
Thinking about it after leaving the labyrinth, if Dorn were a goblin, he would prefer to set traps near forks in the path or corners where the passage bent.
That way, he could pounce before an explorer who had stepped on the trap and panicked could come to their senses.
Having just entered the labyrinth and not yet relaxed his guard, Dorn set his bag down completely and went to check both sides of the three-way junction.
—Kerek! Kekerek!
—Kerek!
When the lantern shone to the left, a goblin waiting by the next distant corner barked kerek and turned to run toward him.
There must have been goblins on the right as well, because they responded to the cries of their kin from the opposite side and barked.
When he swung the lantern around to check, there were two goblins on the right.
Dorn quickly made his judgment and ran left.
The lantern light fumbled frantically over the floor of the left passage like the tongue of a beggar starved for three days, and Dorn ran at a measured pace.
He had to stop anyway.
When the distance to the goblin had become suitably close, Dorn checked the floor once more with the lantern, then set it down in the right direction.
Now the goblin had to fight Dorn one-on-one, with the lantern’s backlight in its eyes.
Perhaps it was indeed a monster. The goblin charged without even realizing it was at a disadvantage.
—Thud! Kazzzk—kerek!
Having learned from the previous day’s battle, Dorn did not underestimate the light, weak goblin, and used his shield to shove it aside.
The goblin fell to the floor and barked as its chest was stepped on, but the battle was already as good as over.
With two goblins running in from the other side, he had no time to delay.
Dorn brought down the club he had raised high.
—Thud! Thud! Thud!
After striking three times and confirming that the goblin’s head had split open, Dorn did not spend time finishing it off. He picked up the lantern and illuminated behind him.
Confirming that there was still some distance between him and the two goblins, Dorn glanced once more at the dead goblin and set the lantern down.
Now he simply had to act according to what he had thought of before meeting the hobgoblin.
As Dorn moved forward, he pressed his left arm, which held the shield, against the wall.
It was an action born from the thought that being surrounded was the most dangerous thing.
The two goblins, who had been running down the center of the labyrinth passage wide enough for five people to walk side by side, changed their path when Dorn stuck to the wall. Like the stupid monsters they were, their formation shifted from left and right to front and back in a line.
—Suuup.
Regulating his breath, Dorn used the hand holding the club to support the inside of the shield and held it in front of his chest.
When the leading goblin drew close, this time he did not change direction. He thrust the shield straight forward and shoved it back.
—Thud!
The goblin, knocked backward by the powerful force, was pinned in place as Dorn stepped on its pelvis with his left foot. Without retrieving his shield, he lifted it to keep the rear goblin that followed in check.
He offset the rear goblin’s charging force, pulled back the shield that had been blocking its vision, and swung the club he had drawn back forward with force.
—Papak!
The club struck a glancing blow to the wildly moving goblin’s head and fell onto its shoulder.
Dorn kicked the pained rear goblin over with his right foot, then pressed down on the chest of the fallen leading goblin with the rim of his shield.
The goblin’s attempt to claw at Dorn’s leg with its nails failed.
—Thud! Thud! Thud!
—Suu, huu… Suup!
After smashing the goblin’s head with successive blows of the club, Dorn took only the briefest breath and covered his chest with the shield again.
—Kek! Kerereuk!
—Gagak!
The one remaining goblin desperately scratched at the shield with the hand on the side that had not been hit by the club.
Dorn covered the goblin’s uninjured right arm with the shield and brought the club down.
—Thud! Thud!… Thud! Thud!
Dorn waited a moment while the goblin whose head had been struck by the hard club fell, then, once it stopped moving, struck it twice more.
—Huu… Huu…
Having dealt with a total of three goblins, Dorn kept the goblin he had not finished off in his line of sight and backed away to pick up the lantern.
First, he checked the goblin that had come from the left.
—Thud!
Next was the leading goblin that had come from the right.
—Thud!
He stared for a moment at the goblin he had killed last, then lowered the club.
Slowly taking deep breaths and settling his breathing, Dorn left the certainly dead, collapsed goblins behind him and walked toward the corner where he had left his bag.
◆ ◆ ◆
A tired-looking Dorn walked through the labyrinth passage.
The pouch of magic stones he had put in his bag was rather plump, and both the shoulder holding the lantern and his walking posture were relaxed.
His expressionless face even seemed bored.
‘I think I’ve gathered enough magic stones now, but the exit portal isn’t showing up.’
Dorn had gathered enough magic stones.
Of course, for a novice explorer, the more magic stones the better, but it meant he had earned enough to eat and drink while he searched for other novices to explore with right away.
The companions he found that way would share the cost of hiring a scout explorer when they went to the second floor.
Since all portals in the labyrinth could be used by up to six people together, he needed to find, at most, five novice companions.
In any case, all he needed to do now was leave, sell the magic stones, join the guild, and rest for a few days with the money he had saved while looking for a party—but that exit portal could not be found.
When the exit portal failed to appear, Dorn covered himself with a blanket in the middle of the labyrinth passage and slept in order to maintain his condition.
Because of the hard floor and the uneasy environment, he slept fitfully.
He had also eaten more than half of the preserved rations and water he had hastily brought with him.
Dorn pushed away his boredom, turned the corner of the stone wall, and shone his lantern.
There was an open space there, just like when he had met the hobgoblin.
—Kerek!
—Kerereuk!
—Kek!
Five goblins stared at Dorn.