Chapter 41

The next day, Lastiara and I were back in the Labyrinth, making a fresh attempt at the 21st floor.

“—All right! Finally, we can start some serious Labyrinth exploration, Christ.”

“Yeah. Though, I suspect there’s a big gap between your definition of ‘serious’ and mine.”

We had used the Connection magic in my house to take a shortcut directly to the 20th floor. Being this deep in the Labyrinth so early in the morning felt like a novel experience.

Lastiara walked cheerfully behind me, stretching her limbs as she moved.

Unlike yesterday, I was the one leading the way.

To make the most of my abilities, I had returned to my original position.

I focused on scouting the path through the 21st floor, but the noisy chatter from Lastiara behind me wouldn’t stop.

“Christ! Our goal is the 30th floor!”

“…No, let’s take it one floor at a time and see how things go. First, we’ll get used to the 21st floor, and for now, let’s set our goal at the end of the Main Path—”

“Your stories are too long!!”

When I tried to present my plan, Lastiara cut me off with a pout.

When it came to our strategy for the Labyrinth, we were completely incompatible. Despite discussing it since dawn, we still hadn’t reached a consensus even now that we were inside.

—That said, I figured this was fine.

I had known from the start that Lastiara would be difficult to control.

I was the one who had to adjust to her, but if I gave in and spoiled her from the beginning, it would cause trouble later.

The ideal was for me, who was far too cautious, to balance out Lastiara, who was far too aggressive. Therefore, it was actually just right that neither of us was willing to back down.

“My explanations might be long, but I don’t think I’ve said anything wrong regarding our progress through the Labyrinth.”

“You might not be saying anything wrong, but you’re saying very boring things.”

“Correctness and boredom often go hand in hand. Besides, I’m not exactly here for fun.”

“But Christ, that’s a breach of contract, isn’t it? Since I’m helping you with your goal of conquering the Labyrinth, you have an obligation to help me with my goal of enjoying the Labyrinth.”

“Yeah, you’re right. —This is a ‘contract.’ So let’s find a middle ground, Lastiara. It’s fine for you to enjoy yourself, but don’t forget my goal either. Keep your impulsiveness to a minimum.”

“Ugh… so that’s why you’ve been so stubborn since this morning? Just to lay down the law…?”

I wouldn’t feel safe unless I drove the point home with someone like her.

She was a completely different type of person compared to Dia or Maria, whom I had teamed up with before.

“It’s because your usual behavior is so unreliable. Ever since we met, you’ve always… Wait, that’s enough talking.”

As I was speaking with Lastiara, I sensed monsters approaching through my Dimension magic.

“Oh, here they come. Man, that scouting magic of yours sure is handy, Christ.”

“There’s one enemy up ahead. It’s another one of those giant monkeys from yesterday. I’ll jump in first to draw its attention. You jump in after me. I’ll handle the coordination on my end.”

“Do you think I’m a wild boar or something? Fine, I’ll follow your lead for now.”

“Here I go—!!”

I dashed forward the moment I gave the signal.

Even though I was running at full tilt, Lastiara stayed right on my heels. As expected, she was someone I could rely on when it came to sheer ability.

Turning a corner in the corridor, the grotesque monster came into view.

It was the same type as yesterday: a Fury.

Noticing my approach, the Fury tried to intercept me with its four arms.

I slipped past its massive limbs, dove between its legs, and circled around to its back. The Fury twisted its body, trying to attack me behind it, but Lastiara, who was following close behind, didn’t give it the chance.

The Fury blocked Lastiara’s sword with two of its arms. Then, it stretched its remaining arms toward me. I dodged the strike and shifted further into the Fury’s blind spot. The Fury tried to turn its head to keep me in sight, but gave up because of Lastiara’s presence in front of it. It must have sensed instinctively that it would take a fatal blow if it took its eyes off her.

The Fury prioritized crushing Lastiara in front of it.

Leaving me alone at its back, it tried to grab her.

At that moment, I was certain of our victory.

The instant those massive hands were about to reach Lastiara, my sword slashed through the creature’s shoulder. Because its shoulder was sliced, the arm trying to grab Lastiara stopped for a split second. Lastiara didn’t miss that opening; she dove under the giant arms and slashed the Fury across its torso.

The Fury roared in anger and became desperate to crush Lastiara.

Matching the enemy’s rhythm, I swung my sword again. Naturally, the Fury’s movement stalled for another split second.

It was checkmate.

As long as I was at its back, the Fury couldn’t land a proper attack.

This was a feat possible only because Dimension magic constantly informed me of the movements of both Lastiara and the enemy.

Lastiara continued to carve into the Fury as I repeatedly created openings. Finally, her sword severed the Fury’s neck, and at the same time, I thrust my blade through the Fury’s heart from behind.

The Fury let out a final death throe, sprayed blood, and vanished into light.

I picked up the dropped magic stone and checked on Lastiara.

“Any injuries?”

“I didn’t even get any blood on me. Easy. Honestly, I almost feel sorry for that monster. It couldn’t do a thing…”

“This is what happens when we go all out. It’s like harvesting wheat; I love it.”

“Hmm… if we overwhelm them too much, it loses its charm…”

“Don’t worry. The real 21st floor starts now. —Dimension.”

I expanded my magical senses.

The characteristic of the 21st floor was that monsters with overwhelming power would spawn in large numbers.

That mechanism surely involved that death throe from earlier.

I identified all the monsters within the area the roar would have reached. As expected, every single monster had heard the cry and was heading our way.

“How is it?”

“Just as I thought. It seems that when you kill one, the surrounding monsters hear it and come flocking.”

Yesterday, I didn’t have the time to scout carefully over long distances, but today was different.

I had the composure to grasp their movements.

“I see. So the more we kill, the more we get surrounded.”

“But that kind of coordination is useless against me. With my magic, there’s no way we’ll get cornered. Lastiara, follow me.”

“Roger that. Are we going to keep taking them down with that two-on-one tactic?”

“That’ll be the basic plan, but if it gets tedious, I might just wipe them out all at once. Even if we get surrounded, the two of us will be fine.”

“Of course.”

Lastiara replied with a smile as she followed me.

In reality, both Lastiara and I were typical solo-player types.

One could even say we showed our true value when facing many enemies at once.

It was true that we were strong when cooperating like we just did, but that was because our individual strength and combat styles were similar. Ordinarily, there wouldn’t be anyone who could keep up with Lastiara’s movements. Because she knew that, she had probably wanted to become my companion.

“There are monsters just a little further ahead. This time, it looks like we can launch a surprise attack from behind.”

“Got it. …Oh, and hunting monsters is all well and good, but make sure we actually head toward the 22nd floor, okay?”

“If we have the luxury, I’ll consider it.”

In truth, we had nothing but luxury. Moving at the speed Lastiara and I were capable of, we wouldn’t be surrounded unless something truly extraordinary happened.

That was exactly why we could afford to chat.

The Furies had given us a hard time yesterday, but honestly, they weren’t a threat anymore.

After all, they were being denied their primary strength: attacking in a swarm. There was no helping it.

We repeatedly picked them off one by one, making our way through the 21st floor.

We veered off the Main Path and took detours to avoid being boxed in, but we successfully reached the stairs to the 22nd floor without any issues.

It had taken about an hour.

The number of Furies defeated was over ten.

Having reached the area before the stairs to the 22nd floor, we took a moment to recover while staying alert to our surroundings.

Even though I said we had the luxury, mistakes happen when you deal with high numbers. We had been surrounded a few times, so we weren’t entirely unscathed. The damage wasn’t severe, but it was enough to require healing magic.

“‘A world of stainless purity,’ ‘Basking in the faint sunlight.’ —Cure Full!”

Lastiara intoned, gathering mana and chanting the healing spell.

Watching her, I threw a question her way.

“Those… poem-like words before the spell. Do they have any meaning?”

“The poem? Oh, this. Hmm, it’s just an aid for my visualization, so I don’t really need it. It’s more like a habit, I guess.”

“I see.”

It seemed that even with the same magic, individual quirks emerged.

The way people visualized or even the way they chanted could differ. Since the spell formulas themselves resided within the body, that was only natural.

“Alright. Full recovery complete.”

“Thanks.”

While checking our respective MP, I took the opportunity to check my experience points as well.

Since I hadn’t done any proper hunting since the fight with Teida, the experience had piled up all at once. As expected of monsters from the deeper floors, the experience per kill was on a different level.

The fact that we were hunting in areas deeper than our recommended level probably played a large part in that too.

Thanks to our extraordinary Aptitude, Lastiara and I were able to fight in floors much deeper than what was typical for our levels. Even Teida had said that at level 10, I possessed the stats of a general explorer in their 20s. Since we could fight high-level monsters at a low level, our experience naturally accumulated faster than usual.

“Might as well level up while we’re at it. Christ, keep watch.”

“Leave it to me.”

Lastiara must have seen her experience points too.

Judging that a level-up was possible, she chanted the level-up magic.

I dumped the resulting bonus points into MP. Maintaining the Connection magic meant my usable MP was starting to feel unreliable.

As for skill points, I decided to keep saving them for now.

“I still have plenty of MP left. By the way, Christ, why is your MP so low?”

“That gate magic reduces my maximum MP by 200. Plus, my scouting magic constantly drains MP. I use support magic during combat, so it drops even further.”

“Yikes, your fuel efficiency is terrible… You should try to save more.”

“No thanks. I don’t want to die if I can help it.”

“Mmm… I guess it would be a problem for me if you died, too…”

As we discussed magic, I remembered something that had been bothering me for a while. I figured this was as good a time as any to ask.

“Come to think of it, I’ve been curious. What exactly is that ‘Foreigner’ skill you mentioned before?”

“Hm? From where I’m standing, I can see five skills for you, Christ: ‘Swordsmanship,’ ‘Freeze Magic,’ ‘Dimension Magic,’ ‘Foreigner,’ and ‘???’.”

“I see ‘Foreigner’ as ‘???’ on my end. Is your eye at a higher level than mine? Is that ‘Foreigner’ skill actually useful for anything right now?”

“Even if you ask me if it’s useful, I don’t really know the details. Isn’t it just a title indicating you aren’t from this world?”

“I suppose so.”

We continued our idle chatter as we descended to the 22nd floor.

I could have looked for a boss monster on the 21st floor, but since there wasn’t much detailed information on floors this deep, I gave up on the idea. There weren’t many explorers at the tavern who had ever reached the 20th floor.

The stairs to the 22nd floor were long.

That meant the 22nd floor had high ceilings.

“Phew. We made it to the 22nd floor. I almost died the last time I came here, but it’s easy with two people.”

“Almost died? Even if you were alone, did a normal monster really push you that far?”

“Last time, I came here before I was even level 10. I thought if I got too strong, there wouldn’t be any challenge. Man, that was really fun.”

“The fact that you naturally try to do low-level clears scares me. Are you suicidal or something?”

Despite her life being on the line, Lastiara was nonchalantly imposing self-restrictions on her playstyle.

“No, I’d hate to die. I might be like this, but I know the value of life. I’m not good with seeing people die.”

“You say that, but you looked pretty happy watching Maria and me almost die.”

“I can’t help it if I love being right on the edge of death. It’s fine, I’ll definitely save you before you die.”

Lastiara casually said things that would probably make Maria stop talking to her if she heard.

I sighed at Lastiara’s abnormal values as we moved through the 22nd floor.

Unlike the 21st floor, the corridors here were narrow but the ceilings were high. The width was a few meters, while the height was dozens of meters. While every floor had its own characteristics, this was the first time I’d seen such a drastic change.

Perhaps the deeper the floor, the more distinct its features became.

As I analyzed the corridors, my Dimension magic picked up an enemy on the 22nd floor.

It was a bird-type monster.

Flying monsters in the Labyrinth tended to be small, but this one was different. It had a massive body several meters long, with wings and talons like a hawk. Furthermore, it had three heads, each with compound eyes. I could see fierce canine teeth, so I’d have to watch out for both claws and fangs.

“Lastiara, a bird-like monster showed up.”

“Oh, those guys. They flee if they get wounded, so try to take them out in one hit. We’ll ignore the ones that don’t descend and just counter the ones that come at us.”

“A monster that runs away? That sounds like a pain. But if some don’t descend, does that mean they’re also pack-based monsters?”

“It’s like the monkeys on the 21st floor turned into birds. The combat changes completely… but well, you’ll be fine, Christ.”

“What is with this pointless trust you have in me…?”

“Well, it’s because you’re the ‘protagonist’ to me, Christ…”

Lastiara replied cryptically.

I started to offer a lighthearted comeback, but then I noticed a Rio Eagle gliding toward us and shifted my focus from her to the enemy.

“—! Here it comes!”

“You can tell, even though it’s so dark up there?”

I leveled my sword, ready to intercept the descending Rio Eagle. Lastiara followed suit, despite her nonchalant remark.

With speed incomparable to the Furies of the 21st floor, the Rio Eagle aimed its talons at my throat. I caught the strike with the flat of my blade, intending to slash through its body immediately. However, taking the full brunt of the downward kinetic energy from its talons forced my body to arch backward. By the time I could bring my sword back around, the Rio Eagle had already escaped my reach.

I was unable to stop the hit-and-run tactics of the Rio Eagle, and just as I was about to watch it fly off—a flying sword pierced the side of the enemy as it tried to gain altitude.

It was a sword Lastiara had thrown.

The Rio Eagle vanished into light, and Lastiara laughed as she picked up her remaining sword and the magic stone.

“They’re a huge pain one-on-one, but not so much with two people. It’s easy if one person takes the hit and the other attacks the moment they do.”

“So it seems. But that won’t work if there are multiple opponents.”

“True.”

Lastiara tossed the magic stone to me.

I put it into my Inventory while asking about our plan moving forward.

“So, what’s the move? Are we going to take these guys on?”

“No, these guys are a total drag. Let’s basically just pass through the 22nd floor.”

Indeed, their movements were fast, and their tactics were clever.

Dealing with them properly would be quite a drain on the nerves.

An ordinary person wouldn’t even notice an aerial ambush because the ceiling was so dark. Even if they did, the overwhelming speed would make defense impossible. Even if they defended, the energy of the fall would make it difficult to counterattack easily. And if an attack failed, the monster would simply retreat and repeat the process. According to Lastiara, they flee as soon as they’re wounded, making them among the most troublesome monsters found up to the 22nd floor.

“I’m not a fan of these guys either… It’s not worth the effort without some long-range attack methods…”

“Well, we are both specialized in close-to-mid range, after all.”

“Right.”

As swordsmen, the only long-range attack I or Lastiara could manage was throwing a sword. If we missed, our favorite blades would be gone; on the other hand, carrying an extra sword just for throwing would slow us down. Simply put, we weren’t suited for dealing with distant enemies.

I could probably manage if I used my Inventory system to its maximum potential, but I wasn’t inclined to play such a hand against these monsters.

It would be easy if Dia were here, but with just the two of us, ignoring them was the better choice.

In a rare moment of agreement with Lastiara, we decided to move while avoiding the Rio Eagles as much as possible.

However, after walking for a few minutes, we realized it wouldn’t be that simple.

“Tch…”

“Something wrong, Christ?”

I analyzed the information from my Dimension magic and clicked my tongue.

I knew that by defeating a Rio Eagle earlier, the ones nearby were heading our way. I had been choosing paths to avoid being surrounded, but they were moving to block our escape routes with coordination that put the Furies to shame.

Two individuals that had slipped through the gaps in my Dimension magic were closing in.

“Sorry, Lastiara. One is coming from the front and one from the back.”

“Can’t be helped. If it’s front and back, let’s just stand back-to-back for now.”

“Got it. But we’ll be surrounded if we take too long. Let’s finish this as quickly as possible. —Dimension: Little Snow. Form.”

I refined about five orbs of Little Snow and set them floating around us.

I applied the Form magic to my own sword.

“Those bubbles of cold air… I’ve never seen or heard of that magic. Did you invent it?”

“I wouldn’t say invented; it’s more like I combined existing magics. It’s a trap-type spell, so don’t touch them. If they hit, they should slow the enemy down, so use them well.”

“Roger.”

Once the preparations were complete, the two Rio Eagles above began their glide toward us.

Lastiara and I stood back-to-back, each taking on one of the birds.

I used my Dimension: Gladiator to grasp the Rio Eagle’s movements.

I managed to read its attack and successfully blocked the initial strike. However, my counterattack was inevitably a beat too slow, and my sword only cut through empty air. It seemed to be the same for Lastiara behind me.

However, I did succeed in transferring the Form magic to the Rio Eagle.

Since my ability to track that specific individual had improved drastically, I was confident I would definitely kill it the next time it descended.

But the Rio Eagle that had been hit by Form fled into the distance, as if mocking me.

“Eh? It ran away just because a magic bubble touched it?”

“What a cowardly monster. I guess it flees if there’s even the slightest anomaly.”

Furthermore, the Rio Eagle that had escaped was letting out cries in the distance. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed to be calling for reinforcements.

Expanding the range of my Dimension magic, it seemed the monsters further away had also noticed us. Among them were monsters other than Rio Eagles. At this rate, we would have to face multiple types of enemies at once.

“Ugh. And the one that got away is calling its friends…”

“I figured that would happen. Last time I just ran at full speed. What do you want to do, Christ?”

“I think I’d like to do the same.”

“Agreed. They’re tough opponents, but they’re so underhanded that it’s not very fun.”

Lastiara and I looked at each other, nodded, and started running at the same time.

The one Lastiara had missed tried to attack our backs. However, there are no blind spots in my magic. I pointed my sword behind me as if to declare that I could see it. Just by doing that, the approaching Rio Eagle retreated.

Leaving the retreating Rio Eagle behind, Lastiara and I ran at full tilt toward the 23rd floor.

Because I chose the path using Dimension magic, there were few enemies along the way. However, the monsters on the 22nd floor were all cautious, and we repeatedly had them escape just before we could land a finishing blow.

As a result, it turned into a miserable outing where we wasted MP and gained no experience.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

“Haa… haa… haa…”

We reached the area before the 23rd floor, gasping for breath.

Lastiara didn’t hold back her complaints.

“Phew… the 22nd floor is such a pain.”

She seemed to have lost a significant amount of stamina as well.

Her shoulders were heaving as she followed behind me.

As we began to descend the stairs, the monsters that had been chasing us pulled back. It seemed that monsters were unable to cross between floors.

After etching that useful bit of information into my mind, I descended to the 23rd floor.