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“The guy’s not even giving her rice cakes, and she’s already drinking kimchi soup for nothing (an old saying on Earth about getting ahead of yourself)… Personally, I don’t like Scala much, but that time, I really did feel sorry for her. No matter how petty I might be, treating a girl who’s been loyal to him since childhood like some disposable trinket….”
“Oh…”
“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s obvious I’m prettier than Scala, isn’t it?”
“Well, fair. You are a little better.”
“The reason I’m acting overly friendly with you—no, with you, Oppa—is just to rub it in his face. Every time I act close to you and he turns red and blue with rage, it’s so satisfying… Oh, can I call you Oppa?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the cold, steady stream of venom pouring from Sensible’s lips. This wasn’t the character I thought she was. With her flat tone and calm expression, I had assumed her emotions were muted. But no, she was the type who never held her tongue—a cool-headed sniper with words.
With a half-smile, I asked, “If you hate him that much, why stay in the party?”
She gave me a wry smile. “I’m a low-ranking priest from the Earth Mother Church in Ferom, and while his father may only be a baron, he’s still the lord of Ferom. If enduring a little nuisance means the temple keeps good relations with the local lord, that’s a bargain.”
“Hm…”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I volunteered. The Earth Mother Church in Ferom took me in as an orphan and raised me. The priests and clerics there are like family to me. So when the lord demanded a priest accompany his son, I stepped forward. In terms of age and ability, I was the best fit.”
“Complicated.”
“Hehe… isn’t life always like that?”
As we chatted quietly, Goldie—who’d been glaring at me with bloodshot eyes this whole time—finally reached the common well in the middle of the village and barked out,
“Rest here! Refill your water and eat something for two hours! And Illeia!”
“…What now?”
“Come with me!”
“Haa… here we go again…”
With a sigh, Sensible trudged toward him. I asked,
“Want me to tag along?”
She gave a small laugh.
“No, it’s always the same. I just have to listen to him brag for a while.”
“If you need help, say the word. Consider it payback for that entertaining story.”
“…That’s reassuring, Oppa.”
Around the well, plenty of other adventuring parties were resting and filling up their flasks.
I leaned against my pack, half-ostracized from my party (Sensible still trapped with Goldie), when suddenly—
Swoop. Grab.
“Hrk!!”
“Well, would you look at that. A pickpocket with reinforced muscles?”
“Let me go!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll let you go. After I snap a few limbs.”
“W-wait—!”
Crack!!
“Gaaaah!!”
I tossed the thief aside, now writhing with broken arms and legs, and sighed.
“A novice Steel Body user, reduced to petty theft? Pathetic.”
From inside my pack, munching on snacks like nothing had happened, Shia muttered,
“Because it pays. If the target looks weak, they mug him. If he looks strong, they pickpocket instead. If they luck into stealing a pouch of mana stones, it’s a jackpot. They probably thought you were easy prey, since you were off on your own.”
“Even so, a Steel Body user as a thief… wait. Don’t tell me this is Burnt Clan’s handiwork? Letting thugs and cutpurses run wild on purpose? Loose security, obvious crooks left alone…”
“Quite possible.”
Her words made me recall what that Burnt Clan grunt had told me at the entrance:
‘If trouble comes up inside, just flash this.’
On a hunch, I pinned the badge I’d received at the gate prominently on my upper arm.
Sure enough, the loitering thugs who’d been sizing me up stiffened at the sight of it—then scattered from view without a sound.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.
“For real? What a damn trainwreck…”
Floor 2.
After roughly two hours of rest, our party moved onward.
Thankfully, Goldie had finally learned to stay in his lane, so the journey proceeded without incident. Not that it was surprising—kids who could already mess around on Floor 5 weren’t going to struggle on Floor 2.
We paid another steep fee to pass through the cleaner, better-guarded Floor 2 passage village, then pressed on and descended into Floor 3.
That was where things started to get interesting.
Screeech! Kuek! Kurek!!
“Orcs, huh? First time I’ve seen them in the labyrinth,”
I muttered, sizing up a half-naked brute.
From her perch on my pack, Shia gave a long yawn.
“Fuwaaah… My dear, watching scraps with trash is getting dull. Why don’t you spice things up and use some real strength?”
“Customer’s request, huh? As your humble labyrinth tour guide, I’ll oblige. Fine. Time to swap weapons.”
I sheathed my staff and drew a heavier staff nearly two meters long.1
Goldie’s voice screeched from ahead:
“Oxhead! Take the center orc! Left’s the rookie’s! Right’s mine! Selan, free fire! The rest of you, don’t move!”
“Yes, Young Master!”
“Y-yes, sir…”
Thirteen goblins swarmed forward, led by a wandering orc.
Normally, orcs and goblins rarely formed packs together, but the labyrinth always served up strange combinations.
Crash!
Oxhead blocked the orc’s rusty glaive with his kite shield and shoved the brute back. Meanwhile, I charged forward alongside Goldie toward the goblin mob.
Wham! Boom!
Three goblins smashed to paste in a single swing of my heavy staff, the impact so brutal the rest froze mid-charge in terror.
Against these things, finesse was pointless. I spun, planted my foot, and delivered a full-force swing.
KWAANG!!
Eight goblins were reduced to something that used to be goblins in a single breath.
“…!”
“…!!”
Everyone—including the orc and surviving goblins—stared at me in shock.
Without slowing, I pivoted toward the wandering orc locked in a shoving match with Oxhead. My staff rammed straight into its ribs.
CRUNCH!!
Its chest collapsed with its lungs and ribs, folding the orc in half before it could even scream.
Then I turned to the five goblins still struggling against Goldie.
“D-don’t touch them! They’re mine!!” he screeched, panicked.
“Oh? Sure. Have it your way.”
“D-damn it…!!”
The goblins, emboldened now that I stepped back, lunged again. Goldie cursed and threw himself at them, sword swinging wildly.
“Die, you filthy trash!!”
“Hank! Wait! Calm down!”
“Out of my way, Scala!”
After nearly a full minute of flailing combat, Goldie finally hacked down the last five goblins. Face red and eyes bloodshot, he stormed toward me and seized me by the collar.
Grab!
“You bastard! Were you hiding your strength just to mock me!?”
“…What?”
“You! There’s no way you’re really a Novice!! What kind of Novice slaughters eight goblins in a single breath!?”
“What a load of crap. Since when did fighting well become the same as mocking you?”
“You don’t meet the criteria I set for my party! Yet you hid your strength and wormed your way in!!”
I pried his hands off my collar and snorted.
“Please. Who the hell would ever meet those stupid conditions of yours?”
“What!?”
“Forget it. Anyway, I am a Novice, so quit your bullshit. You don’t see me channeling mana into my weapon, do you?”
“You expect me to believe that kind of destructive power comes from a Novice? Nonsense! You were hiding your mana to humiliate me!”
(Well… not exactly wrong. But what am I supposed to say? That I got stronger after sitting on the Seat of Transcendence? Yeah, right.)
So instead, I went on the attack.
“Nonsense? You’re just a mid-level Mana User, so what the hell do you know about body mana? If I really were a Mana User or Aura User, do you think I’d even bother tagging along with some half-baked party that can’t even hit Silver rank? What could I possibly get out of that?”
“…Tch.”
“Here’s a warning: stop picking pointless fights. This is the labyrinth, not the outside world. We already have enough problems just staying alive, so why the hell are you trying to create new ones? That’s leadership to you?”
Goldie’s face twisted up as if he wanted to scream again—until Oxhead stepped in, grabbing him by the shoulders.
“Young Master, please. He’s right. If you have an issue, settle it outside after this run. For now… just let it go.”
“Eghh…”
“Please, Hank. Enough already.”
Even Sparks chimed in, coaxing and tugging him back. With his followers against him, Goldie finally grit his teeth and turned away.
“…Fine. But I’ll remember this.”
“Go catch your breath, kid. You can’t even handle five goblins without wheezing.”
“Shut up!!”
In the end, the rest of Floor 3 went smoothly.
Which made sense. I was killing half the monsters myself while the other five split the scraps.
The only real surprise came when we ran into a swarm of Plague Rats—a nasty breed whose blood and flesh carried disease. Normally they didn’t appear until Floor 5, but the labyrinth was full of oddities.
Compared to the wolf-sized War Rats, Plague Rats weren’t much stronger, just dirtier. Killing them just required a little extra caution.
By around 2 a.m. surface time, we reached the passage village on Floor 3. Tired from the day’s crawl, we decided to spend the night there.
3 a.m.
I was sprawled across the ridiculously overpriced inn bed, rolling around in boredom, when Shia finally returned. She’d slipped out the moment we checked in, claiming she had business.
The door clicked.
“You’re back. Where’d you run off to?”
“Heheheh…”
“…What’s with that creepy laugh?”
Instead of answering, Shia pulled something from her robes and held it out to me.
It was a hand mirror—no, a Recording Artifact. The same kind sold at the Splitting Flame Tower alongside their usual stock of suspicious S&M gear.
I didn’t need to ask what its normal use was. Pretty obvious.
“…Why do you have this?”
“Fufufu. My dear, allow me to show you what I just witnessed in the back storage shed of the inn next door.”
“…The next inn? Storage shed? What the hell kind of location is that?”
“Never mind that. Just watch.”
Bzzzzm.
The artifact activated, and an image shimmered to life on the mirror’s surface—two young figures, tangled together.
Two very familiar figures.
“…Goldie and Sparks?”
ED/N: The first one was smaller. ↩️
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