Waking on a morning when sunlight poured down and birds chirped, Doreun ate a bowl of stew, then checked his outfit for the day’s tasks and pondered for a moment.
He obviously had to bring his coin pouch, but did he really need to take the cumbersome bag, shield, club, and even the leather cap?
Today’s essential tasks were to visit the Warrior Guild, check the noticeboard, find and read through a booklet that compiled all warrior abilities, and purchase one or two potions.
If he had time left, he could soak a whetstone and sharpen his dagger, then run around the outskirts of the city to adapt to his ability.
Searching his memory, he realized that from the gentlemen sitting in the guild drinking beer to the people examining requests on the noticeboard, not a single person had been wandering around unarmed.
Doreun took out unnecessary items like his waterskin and preserved food, packed only what he needed, and slung the now-slim bag over his shoulder.
If he bought a potion, he planned to put it in the bag and bring it back.
He hung his shield and club from a sturdy belt and left the room.
He handed a silver to the innkeeper waiting outside.
“Master. I’ll be staying here again tonight.”
“Sure. Work hard out there.”
After exchanging a brief nod, he left the inn.
Perhaps because Doreun had eaten roast chicken so impressively that other guests ended up ordering it as well, the innkeeper seemed to feel a sense of familiarity toward him and treated him more warmly than before.
On the road from the inn to the guild, Doreun carefully looked over the shops lined up on either side.
According to Kerolpeu, cost-effective shops like the “Novice Furnace” had to be found on the outskirts of the city.
Unlike Earth, where the entire world was connected through the internet, this was a world where people could not write reviews or give star ratings, and even if they did, no one could search them up. So if one wanted to find good value, one had to put in the legwork.
Considering that the item he wanted to buy was a potion, that was an utterly unreasonable task.
Potions were relatively expensive, and their performance could only be confirmed after getting injured, so it was impossible to check each store one by one.
It was not as if Doreun had magical or alchemical knowledge that allowed him to distinguish quality by sight.
Thus, he had decided not to buy two untrustworthy cost-effective potions, but to purchase one reliable high-quality potion instead.
After walking for quite some time and reaching what could be called the downtown area, Doreun chose a shop marked with a potion sign and went inside.
—Jingle— jingle—
A small bell hanging on the door announced Doreun’s visit.
“Welcome!”
A young female clerk, who had been bending over while organizing something, lifted her head and greeted him.
Then an older man emerged from the back of the shop and gestured to her.
“You finish sorting that. I’ll handle the customer.”
Doreun and the shopkeeper faced each other across the counter.
“Hello. I’d like to purchase a potion for use on the lower floors of the labyrinth.”
“How far down do you explore?”
Doreun pondered briefly.
Right now, he was only staying on the first floor, but in his opinion, once he had a party, there would be even less chance of getting injured on the first floor. In that case, it would be reasonable to purchase a potion with enough performance to be useful on the second or third floor as well.
“At the moment, I’ve only explored the first floor, but I’d like to buy a potion that will be useful up to the third floor.”
“You explore with quite a bit of planning, I see. If you’ll be using it up to the third floor, this would be the one to buy.”
While inwardly looking down on the customer for not knowing the dangers of the labyrinth, the shopkeeper picked up the potion displayed third from the far end and placed it on the counter.
“The item at the very end is a potion effective against goblin excrement. On the first floor, you’re unlikely to suffer any major wounds, so preventing infection caused by goblin excrement is more urgent than wound-healing effects. But since you say you don’t think you’ll get injured on the first floor at all, I recommend this potion, which has superior wound-healing effects and can be used even on the third floor.”
Thinking that he might not have enough money, Doreun asked,
“How much is that potion?”
“This potion is two gold. Naturally, it’s much more expensive than a potion meant for the first floor.”
The money Doreun had earned from killing one goblin and one hobgoblin had been a little over two silver.
A normal goblin yielded a magic stone about the size of a fingernail, weighing roughly one gram.
Magic stones were worth fifty copper per gram, and although he had killed many goblins during his second labyrinth exploration, even then it had not reached one hundred.
That meant Doreun had a little over forty silver on hand.
“Ah. I don’t have enough money. How much is a potion made for the first floor?”
Doreun spoke honestly and asked the price of a first-floor potion.
“A first-floor potion is ten silver. The price difference is larger than you expected, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It is. Please give me one first-floor potion.”
The shopkeeper put the third-floor potion back on the shelf and picked up a first-floor potion to hand over.
“Beginner explorers usually tend to look down on the second and third floors. But the labyrinth becomes steeply more dangerous with each floor. You be careful too. Especially since, up to the third floor, the structure makes it impossible to run away.”
“Yes. Thank you for the advice.”
As he handed over the silver and received the potion, Doreun thought about it and realized the shopkeeper was right.
At a simple glance, one might think that as long as he could run faster than a goblin, he could flee. But to disappear from a goblin’s field of vision, he would need to put at least two corners’ worth of distance between them, and even then he could not silence the sound.
If so, he would end up encountering another group of goblins while running away.
Running away meant being surrounded, and according to the shopkeeper, in the labyrinth up to the third floor, any monster one encountered had to be fought and defeated.
Having gained [Iron Sinews], Doreun reined in his arrogance and awakened his vigilance toward the labyrinth.
Thinking calmly, it did not seem likely that Doreun would fall into danger on the first floor, but what killed people was always the thought, “Surely not.”
There was nothing wrong with being careful.
◆ ◆ ◆
After buying the potion, Doreun moved to the Warrior Guild and was examining the noticeboard.
Unexpectedly, there was already a posting with Doreun’s name written on it.
The place was the beer tables of the Warrior Guild.
The date was tomorrow.
The time was noon.
The guild would naturally be able to sell beer.
After firmly remembering the date, time, and place, Doreun moved elsewhere to look for a booklet on specialized abilities.
A place with no noticeboard and no beer for sale, but with small tables and chairs set out.
Among the booklets containing various information from the guild, he picked one labeled “Illustrated Guide to Warrior Specialized Abilities” and sat down on a chair.
‘…! Hm… Oh… Ah…’
Doreun felt both surprise and disappointment.
According to what was written in the booklet, specialized abilities had “combinations”!
The most representative and symbolic warrior ability, 【Fighting Spirit】, was not a single ability, but a combination ability completed by gathering four material abilities that served as its ingredients.
And the [Iron Sinews] Doreun had obtained was not a material ability for Fighting Spirit.
When an ability was obtained, one was said to be granted a material ability that could complete a combination ability as quickly as possible based on the material abilities one currently possessed, to the point that one could practically say this “always” happened.
Doreun could choose one from three, but rather than deliberately twisting the order in order to complete 【Fighting Spirit】, it was more reasonable to complete the [Iron Sinews] he already had.
Considering that the more abilities one obtained, the harder it became to obtain the next, it was right to choose the latter between obtaining four more abilities to acquire 【Fighting Spirit】 and obtaining two more to complete his current [Iron Sinews].
Then what would [Iron Sinews] become when two more material abilities were added?
‘【Iron Man】…’
[Iron Sinews] met [Iron Bones] and [Iron Skin] to become 【Iron Man】.
His dejection over how difficult it had become to obtain 【Fighting Spirit】, the symbol of warriors, lasted only a moment.
The name of the combination ability 【Iron Man】 lying ahead on Doreun’s path struck a chord in his heart.
On Earth, “Iron Man” was a term attached to people good at running, cycling, and swimming.
But in the labyrinth city, 【Iron Man】 was quite literally 【Iron Man】.
Of course, his skin would not turn black as iron, but it could still be called 【Iron Man】.
A future in which he became a steel human and flew through the sky flashed through his mind.
(Naturally, he could not fly.)
The booklet also had a brief section describing the differences between 【Fighting Spirit】 and 【Iron Man】. Enhancement through 【Fighting Spirit】 was temporary enhancement that used stamina, and its power extended to weapons and armor as well, while 【Iron Man】 was continuous enhancement that consumed nothing and was limited to the body.
The world, and the Warrior Guild, seemed to evaluate 【Fighting Spirit】 more highly because it required more material abilities and was more popular and symbolic, but Doreun did not.
From the standpoint of someone who actually possessed [Iron Sinews], he felt that its performance was not lacking, and even when compared to 【Fighting Spirit】, it was a good ability with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Perhaps it was because Doreun had excellent aptitude for 【Iron Man】.
The names and patterns of the abilities granted to each explorer were the same, but even the same ability was said to show different performance depending on the person.
That part was explained with the words personal aptitude and talent.
Doreun skimmed through the various warrior abilities written in continuous prose.
After confirming that there were several copies of the same booklet where it had been placed, Doreun put the one in his hand into his bag.
It looked like the Middle Ages, but because magic existed, this world was not stingy about distributing printed materials.
‘Now let’s return to the inn.’
Since his meeting with the party arranged by the guild was scheduled for noon tomorrow, he had to finish all of his remaining tasks today.
Doreun’s steps quickened as he headed out of the guild.
◆ ◆ ◆
After sharpening his blunted dagger on a whetstone soaked in water, Doreun left his bag and cap behind, taking only his shield and club with him.
The idea of running barehanded was a very Earth-like notion.
He did not know what might happen, and since he would be holding a shield and club when fighting anyway, he went out in that state.
Doreun moved farther out from the “Novice Furnace,” and when he saw the grand city gate and the soldiers, he turned left.
Taking the shield and club that had been hanging from his waist and hitting his legs into his hands, he began running along the city wall.
—Inhale, inhale, hoo… Inhale, inhale, hoo…
As he had learned and mastered on Earth, he inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth in time with his steps.
As he wrung out the calf and thigh muscles that seemed like twisted steel wire, and swung the heavy shield and club back and forth, Doreun’s body strode powerfully forward.
—Huff, huff, huff… Hoo, hoo…
After running like that for several minutes, Doreun stopped and caught his ragged breath.
He had adapted to some degree to his transformed physical functions.
The strange thing was that he was out of breath.
The skeletal muscles that had squeezed out tremendous speed and power for quite some time were still perfectly fine.
Like the engine of a supercar that had been started, they urged him to run more.
Doreun wiped sweat away with the back of the hand holding the club and organized his thoughts.
First, compared to the performance of [Iron Sinews], his running speed had increased only slightly.
This was because his body weight was light.
Every movement in the world had action and reaction.
To run fast, one had to push the ground that much harder, and this phenomenon occurred because Doreun’s body weight was not heavy enough to match.
However, considering that his muscles had grown heavier when he obtained [Iron Sinews], he felt that if he obtained the remaining material abilities, [Iron Skin] and [Iron Bones], the issue would be resolved to some extent.
To solve the question of why his muscles were fine but only his breathing was ragged, he closed his eyes and observed himself.
He felt his heart beating leisurely and his lungs making a fuss.
The ability to exercise for a long time was called “cardiopulmonary endurance.”
It was a name given because both the functions of the heart and lungs were involved.
When the lungs loaded oxygen into the blood through gas exchange, the heart squeezed the blood out and transported it throughout the body.
If Doreun’s body were compared to a certification exam, his heart function would be a perfect 100, while his lung function would be a failing 39.
This could be supplemented through training.
By continuing to do intense exercise like this, he could raise his lung function to a certain level.
Such development was unrelated to abilities; it was an ability humans originally possessed.
(Of course, the gas exchange described earlier as lung function did not occur only in the lungs, but also in the tissues; the gas exchange in the tissues had been enhanced by the function of [Iron Sinews]; there was also the small realization that there was a reason 【Fighting Spirit】 was highly evaluated for improving all these processes wholesale under the single word “endurance”; and Doreun’s impression that while respiratory muscles such as the diaphragm and intercostal muscles were strengthened, the gas exchange of the lungs did not receive help from [Iron Sinews] and was therefore terribly regrettable—all of that was nothing more than tedious TMI.)
It was a peaceful evening with a cool breeze blowing.