Chapter 101 - Rumors (3)

Darkness greets us as we enter the Labyrinth. I quickly pull out a torch to light our surroundings, then place my hand on the stone monument right in front of me.

Whew, how long has it been?

WHOOOOM!

A monument no one has touched yet. The five-colored radiance pouring from it. And even that peculiar, prickling sensation in my heart that comes with getting a free ride through life.

「You have opened a portal for the first time. EXP +2」

Misha murmurs as she watches the shimmering light, which has already taken the shape of a sphere.

"Wh-what, nyah? Did you just open a portal, nyah?"

Well, she probably never knew such a sweet exploit existed. I repeat the explanation I gave Aynar before.

"Dimensional instability? You can use that to do this, nyah?"

Unlike Aynar, who gave up on understanding it, Misha at least makes an attempt. Of course, she gets nowhere. Even I have trouble explaining how it actually works. I'm merely taking advantage of a "phenomenon" I happened to discover.

"... I feel sorry for Rotmiller, nyah."

"Huh?"

"If he learns there's a method like this... he'll feel so empty, nyah. Just like I did after making a contract with a Spirit beast using that ring, nyah."

Oh, that's what she means. I wondered why she'd suddenly said she felt sorry for him. Rotmiller would certainly feel terribly cheated if he learned about an exploit that made things this easy.

["Perhaps not now, but if I keep trying, the day may come when I open a portal with my own hands. That's my dream as a Scout."]

As that ambition he'd cautiously shared over drinks showed, he was serious about being a Scout. It wasn't even a pipe dream. His navigation skills really were impressive. I couldn't speak for the other floors, but on the first floor, which he'd devoted himself to obsessively, he ranked among the best. If he could shave off another two hours or so, he might achieve his dream.

Not that it would be easy.

"Let's head up for now."

Anyway, enough chitchat. I step into the portal with Misha.

「You have entered the second floor, Stone Desert.」

Sand crumbles beneath my feet. Hot air rises from below. Stone ruins cast shifting shadows in the pitch darkness as the torch flickers.

"Stone Desert."

Tsk. Why here, of all places? I lead Misha back down to the first floor, then follow my compass east.

'We've ended up on the exact opposite side. We'll be walking for almost two days.'

Had we entered the Labyrinth the usual way, one day would probably have been enough, no matter our destination...

Well, you win some, you lose some. Besides, opening a portal only gives two EXP, but it's the sort that stacks permanently. If all it costs is one extra day of walking, that's an absolute win.

"Ugh, you really notice Rotmiller's absence when he's not here, nyah."

"..."

It takes us about three hours to leave the Dark Region at the outermost edge. Even with the compass, we sometimes take a wrong turn and end up facing a dead-end wall.

"Still, isn't it nice walking with just the two of us, nyah?"

"What are you talking about?"

"No, I just... It's fun having all five of us making a racket, but this isn't bad either, nyah."

At first I wonder what she's getting at, but as I listen, I think I understand. The dwarf and Dwalki talk far too much. Honestly, they do make me chuckle often enough, but most of the time, listening to them is exhausting.

"Kikik!"

Once we're out of the Dark Region and walking through the dimly lit Crystal Cave, monsters keep attacking. The monsters that appear here in the western region are Gnomes. Like the grade-nine monsters they are, one whack is enough to make them croak.

"Kik...?!"

The clay figure turns to mush and vanishes with one blow of my mace. Killing them isn't a problem, but they're a nuisance.

The Gnome's active skill is [Assimilation]. It's a stealth skill, so you can only see them once you're within three meters.

'If Rotmiller were here, he'd take care of them the instant he spotted them.'

Is it because I've gotten used to working in a five-person party? I can take or leave the dwarf, but I do miss that older fellow a little. You might call him the resident walking encyclopedia, always quietly doing his job in the background.

Oh, and Dwalki too. With him around, I wouldn't have to pick up the magic crystals myself.

"Bjorn, someone's coming over there...!"

As I walk along mulling over this and that, Misha taps my waist and calls out quietly. With the keen senses of a Therianthrope, she seems to have detected them before I did.

"What are we going to do, nyah?"

What else would we do? They must have noticed us ages ago.

CLANK, CLANK.

Before long, a party of five appears up ahead. A proper party, with both a mage and a priest. As you'd expect of explorers who've made it this far in just three hours, their equipment is impressive.

'... Sixth floor at least.'

I don't know what Essences they have, but their equipment, made from tier-three and tier-four materials from head to toe, proves their caliber. Equipment is an explorer's calling card, after all.

But perhaps they're judging us the same way.

"Hmm."

As they pass, doubt and wariness creep into their eyes.

Of course they would. They wouldn't have expected to encounter a barbarian and a Therianthrope wearing equipment made from mere tier-two materials here—or, more precisely, at this hour.

'Whew. Please just keep going.'

Thankfully, they pass us without attempting conversation. Rather than my earnest wish getting through to them... it's probably more that they simply don't have the time.

"Mr. Lebron, let's pick up the pace."

"Very well."

Lucky for us, they're speedrunning. Whatever they make of our coming from this direction, they must think other competitors might have gotten ahead of them.

'You're already the fastest, you know.'

Since we're heading back from the portal, I know they're in the lead. Though even so, when they get there, they'll find the portal already open.

"Wow, those people really do run everywhere, nyah."

Apparently seeing speedrunning explorers in person for the first time, Misha sounds impressed. Less than two seconds passed between their coming into view and sweeping past us, but it seems to have left quite an impression nonetheless.

"What's so fascinating? We'll have to do that ourselves someday."

"... Us, nyah?"

Misha tilts her head.

Well, no matter how I put it, it probably doesn't feel real to her. It wasn't long ago that her family treated her as a failure because she couldn't even form a Spirit beast contract.

"You know, Bjorn, you really do have big ambitions, nyah. Is it because you're a barbarian, nyah?"

"... Are you mocking me?"

"Idiot, I meant it was cool, nyah!"

"Ahem."

... She's a little too blunt sometimes. Who does she think she is, a barbarian?

* * *

"Did you see that swordsman's weapon earlier, nyah?"

"You mean the orichalcum sword?"

"Yes, that one, nyah! So it really was orichalcum, nyah. I wonder how much it would cost to make a weapon out of that... nyah."

Misha continues talking about the party we met earlier. She seems to admire high-level explorers. Well, that's a much healthier sentiment than envy or arrogance...

But admiration alone won't get you anything.

"Enough talking. Keep your feet moving."

"Hmph, anyone listening would think I'd stopped, nyah."

Anyway, as we keep walking east, we run into explorers more and more frequently. At first, most are high-level explorers like that party, but their caliber gradually drops as time passes. I take out my watch.

[18 : 57]

It's been nineteen hours since the Labyrinth opened. In other words, we've spent almost the entire day walking. Thanks to that, we've finally reached the starting points—the central area of the first-floor Crystal Cave. We no longer have to worry about running into high-level explorers and arousing their suspicions, but...

'Whew. I didn't think of this.'

Now that we're here, we're conspicuous in a different way.

"Did you see that? The size of that mace..."

"That backpack looked like an Expanded Backpack, too."

Explorers stare at us enviously whenever we pass. Well, we must look strange. We're plainly equipped to hunt on much higher floors, yet here we are, smack in the center of the first.

"Why are people like that still here...?"

It's evening, about time to find overnight companions and get some rest. Explorers clustered in groups of three or four each have something to say as we pass.

It's a strange feeling.

'I used to be like them.'

When I first entered the Labyrinth, I too found overnight companions to rest with. The problem was that the first one I met was Hans A.

"Why are you suddenly laughing, nyah?"

"Just remembering old times."

More precisely, I'm laughing at the memory of myself stubbornly pretending to sleep beside Hans A, even though I was so tired I could fucking die. I really went through all kinds of hell before meeting Erwin.

'Oh, how's she doing?'

With that wealthy older sister of hers, she's surely doing fine, but I suddenly find myself wondering. She was my first companion in this world, after all. Maybe I should look her up sometime?

As I'm walking along thinking about that, a man catches my eye. He isn't doing anything particularly conspicuous, but...

'What a fucking nasty look.'

I suppose I don't like his eyes. I can feel envy and greed glinting in the resentful stare he fixes on me. Yet somehow, it makes me smile again.

'I've really come a long way.'

The old me would've assumed the worst from that single look and tensed up inside. But I'm very different from back then. It's not so much that I've gone soft...

I chuckle. At this point, I have no reason to be afraid of a goblin. Not that he's a goblin, of course, but in terms of combat strength, there's probably not much difference.

Even with my habit of imagining the worst of the worst, I simply can't picture myself getting stabbed to death by that shoddy sword.

Hmm, right... That should be the case.

'Why do I feel shittier the longer I look at him?'

I need to check something.

"You."

When I abruptly stop and look at him, he flinches and straightens from where he's leaning against the wall. That resentful gaze is now filled with nothing but wariness.

"Do you have something to say to me?"

"Uh, no...?"

"Then why are you staring at me like that?"

"... I'm sorry."

As the man apologizes, Misha taps my waist with her fist.

"Bjorn! What's gotten into you, nyah? He hasn't done anything wrong... nyah."

I feel like I've seen this scene on the street before. A thug picks a fight with a passerby, and his girlfriend tries to stop him.

No, but seriously, this guy's stare was uniquely fucking nasty!

"You, what's your name?"

"Hanst Ivan."

"Hanst? Not Hans?"

The man trembles at my question. Apparently, having some barbarian show up out of nowhere and make fun of his name feels insulting. But this is genuinely important.

"Are you sure it's Hanst? You're not mistaken or anything?"

"I-it really is Hanst..."

Hmm, was I really just imagining things, then? As I stare at him and sort out my thoughts, the man anxiously adds,

"I-it used to be Hans, but it was too common, so I changed it."

"... What?"

Fuck, no wonder I felt so shitty. Still, since he's even changed his name, I decide to stop complaining and get on my way. Oh, but of course, I should give him some advice first.

"Never go back to your old name. I mean, keep living as Hanst. Understood?"

"I-I will."

Hanst nods vigorously.

That's when it happens.

RUMMMMMBLE.

The cave begins to shake as though an earthquake has struck. At this sudden anomaly, Misha looks at me.

"Bjorn, nyah?"

Her eyes ask for an explanation.

Of course, I know the answer. There's only one thing in the Labyrinth that causes this phenomenon.

"Run!"

A rupture is about to open. And the first day isn't even over yet.

'Fuck.'