Chapter 20

Inside the Labyrinth.

This was an area inhabited by insect-type monsters. I sprinted alone through the green corridors thick with moisture.

I dodged scythes attacking from every direction, occasionally parrying them with my sword. Directly in front of me was a giant butterfly boss monster. Surrounding me were its kin—monsters in the form of praying mantises.

I organized the information provided by 《Dimension》 in my head and calculated the shortest route to break through the situation. I ignored the mantises’ scythes and charged straight toward the giant butterfly—the Queen of the Forest—without a sideways glance.

In response, the Queen of the Forest fluttered her wings, generating wind blades that she launched at me.

They weren’t a major threat. An air blade only a few meters wide was no different from a normal slash. I ducked and evaded it without issue. Then, I closed the distance and thrust my sword toward the enemy’s heart.

The Queen of the Forest brought her shell-covered arms forward to block the blade. Seeing that, I shifted my sword’s trajectory. My blade cleanly severed the enemy’s head and proceeded to slice through its now-lifeless limbs.

The screeches of the surrounding kin grew louder as they rushed me in a frenzy. But it was useless. Without the long-range support of the Queen, the vanguard was no match for me. I sliced through the attacking mantises one by one.

Just like that, the battle ended in less than a minute. The Queen of the Forest and her kin vanished into light.

“Phew…”

I took a breath. Looking only at the result, it had been an easy fight. That was only natural; my level was different now. Still, there was a great sense of mental achievement in taking down a boss alone that we had previously defeated as a pair.

I immediately checked my status.

After gaining tens of thousands of experience points from defeating Teida, I had leveled up to 10. Compared to when I was level 6, my ability scores had jumped significantly; I felt like I could even keep up with Teida’s movements now.

However, that “Confusion” status had also spiked considerably. Incidentally, I saved my Skill Points. I dumped my Bonus Points into HP. Since I didn’t feel any lack of strength or magic power yet, I poured them into HP, which I had discovered could also act as a substitute for MP.

At this level, the experience from a Queen of the Forest was a mere pittance. However, I felt like something not visible on the “Display” was growing significantly within me.

I stopped maintaining 《Dimension》. I judged that there was no need to consume MP on the shallow floors. I knew the monsters and traps here, and at my level, the risk of death was low. Above all, ordinary explorers didn’t have a convenient radar like 《Dimension》. I decided to hold back from relying on it entirely to foster my natural observation and alertness. If I could learn to conserve this, my endurance for long-term exploration would increase.

I put the drops into my “Inventory” and brought up the “Map” on my “Display.” The paths I had traveled were mapped out, showing the shortest distance to the next floor. I moved forward, relying not on magic but on my sharpened five senses to scout the surroundings.

“Ah… honestly, this is scary…”

I muttered to myself for the first time in a while. But it wasn’t a mutter born of the despair I felt on the first day. It was a mutter to tell myself that I would be okay. I walked through the corridors, occasionally calming myself with a whisper so I wouldn’t miss a thing.

I had two goals today. The first was to advance through the Labyrinth alone. However, just following the “main path” was meaningless, so I set a goal of defeating one boss per floor.

This was also to prevent myself from skipping too many enemies and moving to floors that exceeded my current capabilities… though none of the bosses in these early floors could stand against me at Level 10.

I cleared floors 2, 3, and 4 without issue. Then, I walked through floor 5 and reached that space. The final room leading from floor 5 to floor 6. The space where we had fought Teida.

Here, I searched for the second goal of this exploration: Dia’s arm. I searched every corner of the room, but I couldn’t find it.

At the time, I couldn’t put it in my “Inventory” and my hands hadn’t been free, so I had to give up on it—but it looked like it was never coming back.

Either someone had taken it, or the Labyrinth had some kind of self-purifying mechanism. For example, scavenger monsters that roamed around feeding on waste and trash.

Since it was gone, there was nothing I could do. I headed down the stairs to the next floor. Then, based on information I had gathered at the tavern, I expanded 《Dimension》 to scout for a nearby boss—

“—Waaaaaaaahhhh!!”

A high-pitched scream cut me off. It was a common occurrence in the Labyrinth. Since everyone challenged this place at their own risk, I usually kept my heart cold and ignored it. But this time, the type of scream was bad.

High-pitched. In other words, the voice of a child.

If it had been a voice that sounded like an adult, I could have walked away. But because it was a child, my conscience began to assert itself. Even though I knew it was hypocrisy, continuing to resist my conscience was painful. It would just make the already sleepless nights in this other world even harder to bear.

Hating my own nature, I started running toward the direction of the scream.

—I’d go in quickly and help them just as fast.

I expanded 《Dimension》, gathering information before I even arrived.

The scene was about a few hundred meters ahead. In a wide corridor, a party of four was locked in combat with a swarm of monsters. At the center, a massive creature with countless tentacles was rampaging, flanked by about ten octopus-type kin.

One boy from the party had been captured by the beast. A girl with twin-tails was desperately trying to charge in to save him, but the other two members were tied up dealing with the smaller octopus monsters, leaving them unable to provide backup.

—This was the worst.

It was a party of explorers around my age, and it even included a girl and a child. If I let them die here, the guilt and stress would be unbearable.

I sprinted at full speed. Gradually, the dampness in the corridor increased until I was running through what felt like a shallow pool. Finally, I reached the battlefield.

“I’m not an enemy! I’m here to help!!”

First, I declared my lack of hostile intent. In this place, you risked being treated as a “hyena” and attacked if you didn’t make it clear you were friendly.

I closed in while making my announcement. The situation was deteriorating; the captured boy was being pulled toward the monster’s gargantuan maw. Looking closer, I saw that in those few short seconds, the girl who had recklessly charged in had also been snatched up.

“Magic: 《Dimension: Gladiator》.”

As I cast the spell, the kin monsters noticed my intrusion and reached out to grab me. I evaded them with minimal movement, cutting down anyone in my way as I lunged toward the main beast.

I reached the girl first. She was caught in a tentacle and about to be tossed into the air, but I severed the limb with my sword. Immediately sheathing my blade, I caught her as she fell.

“Eek… Eh?”

The girl seemed unable to process what had happened. After a small shriek, a look of confusion crossed her face. A moment later, realizing she was being held in my arms, her face turned bright red.

I set her down immediately and kept moving. The boy was the priority; I couldn’t afford to dally with the girl. I made it just in time, right as he was about to be dropped into the monster’s mouth. I sliced through the tangled tentacles and pulled him close, shielding him from the creature.

“Are you okay!?”

“A-ah… uuh…”

The boy was too paralyzed by fear to speak. He looked a little younger than me, his face pale and his body trembling. At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to move an inch. Seeing that, I patted his head.

“You’re safe now. You can relax. Just step back for a bit, okay?”

“A-ah, okay… yes…”

I smiled, trying to look as kind as possible. The boy nodded and retreated to the rear.

I turned back to face the monster. While its kin were octopuses, the master was something else entirely. Though the countless tentacles suggested an octopus, the main body was reminiscent of a crustacean—a grotesque fusion of an octopus and a shrimp. It made a sickening clicking sound as crustacean-like legs twitched around its massive mouth.

It was about five meters tall, and most of that mass was just mouth. It was easily one of the most disgusting things I’d seen so far.

“!!”

Holding my breath, I dashed forward. I started by using my sword to shave away the flesh around that repulsive mouth. Sensing the danger to its core, the tentacles converged on me.

From what I could tell, the main body was sluggish; the tentacles were its primary weapon. Its features clearly marked it as aquatic, but it didn’t seem to have any special abilities. I sliced through the tentacles one after another before finally rending the main mouth horizontally. I found and crushed what appeared to be its sensory organs—its eyes and air holes.

Once the monster screamed and ceased its movement, I leaped onto its massive frame and drove my sword straight into its crown.

“KIIIIII! GIIIAAAAAAAHHHHHHH——!!”

The monster let out a piercing shriek. I put all my strength into the blade embedded in its head and ripped downward. Feeling the sensation of a fatal blow, I immediately put distance between us.

Fluids erupted from the creature like a fountain, and its massive body slumped to the ground. The tentacles went limp alongside it, and shortly after, the entire thing vanished into light.

Watching the “Display” fade, I turned my attention to the remaining kin. In the Labyrinth, kin didn’t disappear just because their master fell. Instead, they flew into a rage and swarmed me, the one who killed their leader.

Good. The monsters that had been fighting the four-person party were now focused on me. No one else was going to die tonight.

I cut down the approaching monsters one by one. Though their attacks utilized their soft, flexible bodies, they were slow. With 《Dimension: Gladiator》 active, there was no way I’d fall behind. The moment they reached me, they were slashed, crumbled, and turned into light.

It didn’t take long to finish the extermination.

“Haa… haa… haa!”

I hadn’t taken any damage, but I was breathing hard. While catching my breath, I used magic to confirm there were no more monsters in the vicinity. All that remained were the party members and the magic stones scattered in the shallow water.

Somehow, I think I’ll be able to sleep peacefully tonight…

“E-excuse me…!!”

As I was feeling relieved, one of the party members called out. It was the girl I had saved first.

She had long blonde hair tied in twin-tails—she had quite a sharp sense of fashion. Everything she wore looked expensive, consisting of clothes that seemed out of place in a Labyrinth. They reminded me of a school uniform; a magnificent set of indigo clothes that prioritized both cleanliness and practicality.

“…Uhm. You looked like you were in trouble, so I helped. Was that… okay?”

I hadn’t thought about what to say after the rescue, so something awkward slipped out. Hearing that, the girl shook her head frantically.

“N-no! Not at all, monsieur!”

Monsieur? No, she actually used a very polite, “lady-like” sentence ending. In all my time in both worlds, I’d never heard someone actually speak like that. I’d heard it in stories and games, but seeing a real person use it was a shock.

“…I see. That’s good then.”

“I am truly grateful for your rescue in such a perilous moment. To defeat that ferocious monster in an instant… if it pleases you, may I… may I ask your name?”

The girl’s eyes sparkled as she asked. Her cheeks were flushed, and her nostrils were flared slightly. To put it simply, she seemed extremely excited. Her refined, “noble lady” features were currently being overshadowed by her intensity.

“N-no, it’s not worth mentioning—”

I hate trouble, so I decided not to introduce myself. But if I said, “It’s not a name worth mentioning,” it would sound like a cliché line from a story. Using it myself felt strangely embarrassing, so I tripped over my words halfway through.

“Please, I beg of you… your name…!!”

“Ah, right. It’s Christ.”

Pushed by her sheer momentum, I gave in.

“Oh my, so you are Lord Christ. What a beautiful ring it has.”

The girl looked ecstatic as she savored my name.

Ah, she’s one of those “difficult” people.

My first impression of her was summarized in that single thought. It was an accurate assessment, and I would soon regret not just walking away in silence.