Chapter 134 - Team Play (4)

We’re wandering through a maze. We don’t have any biscuits or a ball of thread, but that’s fine.

We have Rotmiller.

“Wait. I’ll leave another mark here, just in case.”

At one point, I’d wondered what use a Scout could be somewhere even a Guide couldn’t navigate properly...

That was pure arrogance on my part.

Rotmiller, who had steadily worked his way up from the bottom, was a truly versatile man.

“Can I take a look at the map?”

“Of course.”

He’d mapped out the route we’d taken. And it wasn’t some rough sketch, either. It was precise enough to remind me of a minimap.

All he needed was to stop about once every ten minutes and scribble for a moment.

“Now, if you’re done, hand it back. I need to update it.”

“Oh, here.”

Watching Rotmiller move his pen across the map without hesitation amazed me every time, but I didn’t ask how he managed it.

I’d already asked earlier.

[“This isn’t particularly complicated, so I memorize it just by walking. As for measuring distances, I count my steps and mark them down accordingly.”]

Apparently, mapping and surveying were his strongest suits, since he’d spent years doing them in the first floor’s Crystal Cave.

Who knew the old guy had this kind of skill?

It was a little sad, too. This probably wasn’t talent so much as the natural result of all the effort he’d put in because he lacked it.

“Sorry to hold everyone up. Let’s get moving.”

After stopping for about thirty seconds, we set off through the dark maze again.

Rotmiller followed close behind me. Incidentally, he held a longsword now, not a crossbow.

That change had come after a few earlier battles.

[“At this level, I should be more than capable of holding off one of them.”]

With his increased stats, Rotmiller had started taking an active role in combat. Like high-level Scouts generally did, he was trying to pull his weight outside of exploration, too.

“Four this time.”

Shortly after the warning from Rotmiller and his keen nose, four Vykundurths appeared up ahead.

Four rank-six monsters made for a larger pack than anything we’d faced even on the fourth floor...

But no one seemed particularly tense.

We had Dwalki.

FWOOOOSH!

Enhanced Ice Spears shot out the moment the monsters appeared.

But this, too, was different from before. There were two of them, each several times more powerful than they used to be.

‘I never imagined he could double-cast.’

Learning that had made me feel a little ashamed.

We’d spent months together, yet I hadn’t really known these people at all.

‘Goddamn it.’

His mana stat was simply abnormally low. Dwalki’s talent for magic was considerable.

Enough that he could cast an additional support spell while double-casting.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the rank-eight support spell [Trajectory Adjustment].」

Without us even needing to step aside to make room, the Ice Spears flew over our heads like cannonballs fired from afar.

KABOOOOM!

Before the battle had even begun, two rank-six monsters turned to light and vanished.

And so...

“Let’s finish them off and move on. Miss Karlstein and I will take one again.”

While I kept one occupied on my own, Misha and Rotmiller worked together against the other.

Around the time Misha’s side finished theirs off...

FWOOOOSH!

Dwalki finished another incantation, and his Ice Spear shattered the skull of the Vykundurth that had been pounding on me.

The whole thing had taken about four minutes.

“Bjorn, what are you doing, nyah? Get moving.”

And that brought us to the final change in our Outcast Team.

“Heh heh heh. Whatever appears, have no fear. I, Leor Wuerv Dwalki, shall vanquish it.”

Dwalki had become insufferable again.

* * *

Guardian of Balance.

Normally, mages benefited the most from this field effect. Since mages couldn’t absorb Essences, it was essentially structured to inflate their main stat, mana.

But...

‘There should be a limit.’

Even I’d never seen a case as extreme as Dwalki’s.

Still, the change made sense upon closer inspection. Every mage I’d taken along in the game had been a talent freak with high magic-related stats.

Unlike Dwalki, the formerly half-baked mage.

“It’s truly an extraordinary feeling. As though all my shackles have been removed, perhaps?”

Dwalki was human, with a body that was a stranger to exercise. On top of that, his mana stat wasn’t merely below average; it was scraping beneath rock bottom...

‘In terms of stats alone, ours must’ve been almost three times his.’

It might have been different if the whole team were human. But there were me, Misha, and the dwarf.

Our team had three members of other races with naturally high base stats.

Rotmiller?

He’d benefited, too, but nowhere near as much as Dwalki. For starters, he was a veteran who’d filled all four of his Essence slots.

‘... So we’ve ended up funneling all our stats into the mage.’

After observing them all day, I’d finished analyzing our team’s strength.

I’d suffered the biggest loss, but...

‘Can things really work out this well?’

The team as a whole had grown at least twice as strong.

[Dungeon and Stone] was a team-based combat game. Maximum efficiency came not from having one outstanding member, but from everyone pulling their own weight.

It was a little bitter...

But that was why I’d planned to leave the Outcast Team.

‘So this is our first and last taste of proper team play.’

Rotmiller and Dwalki.

Today, I’d seen sides of those two I’d never seen before.

But that changed nothing.

With enough effort and luck, they could potentially reach the level they were at today.

Except...

‘It’ll take years.’

It would take a long time. And that would probably be the furthest they could ever grow.

Their shortcomings were that clear.

Rotmiller?

Essences could make up for his combat power. But to play the way I wanted, I’d need a Scout with Guide abilities from the fifth floor onward.

Dwalki?

Double-casting or not, the most important quality in a mage was ultimately their mana stat. That was probably why even the Magic Tower hadn’t accepted him.

It was coldhearted to say it...

But by the Magic Tower’s standards, Dwalki’s talent wasn’t particularly special.

As my thoughts reached that point, a sudden chill pierced my chest.

Not figuratively. Literally.

「Your character has taken cold damage.」

The cold sank past my skin and into my bones. Snapping back to my senses, I found Misha huffing at me.

“Hey, Bjorn!! How long are you going to ignore me, nyah?!”

“Oh, what did you say?”

“What do you think?! I said we’re all going to sleep, so keep a proper watch, nyah!”

After angrily driving a full-force punch into my chest, Misha seemed to grow concerned. She asked in a softer voice,

“But... are you okay, nyah?”

“I’m fine. It still feels cold, but it doesn’t hurt.”

I tilted my head in genuine confusion.

“Me?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to explain... Oh! If I had to compare it to something, it was like the face you made when I told you to eat carrots, nyah.”

Uh, that only made it more confusing.

“Never mind. Go to sleep. I’ll keep a proper watch, so don’t worry.”

“Hmm, all right, nyah.”

Misha returned to her spot, slipped into her sleeping bag, and chatted with the others.

“Ugh, today was really tiring for some reason, nyah.”

“Haha! No wonder. We were dragged somewhere we know nothing about, and how many rank-six monsters did we kill?”

“... Well, I feel a little awkward saying this, but I enjoyed it somewhat. It felt like I was exploring for the first time, perhaps? Until now, it’s been different from the exploration I’d dreamed of.”

“Oh, I think I know what you mean, nyah.”

“Haha! It felt like being an explorer out of a story.”

A few words exchanged while lying down before the day’s end.

Of course, since this was their time to rest, it didn’t last long.

“Oh, right. Dwalki, you were really amazing today, nyah.”

“Th-that was hardly thanks to any greatness on my part. I could simply fire away without repeatedly recalculating spell formulas to conserve mana. A-any mage could have done it.”

“Uh... really, nyah? I don’t really understand, even when you put it that way. Anyway, good work today. Sleep well, nyah.”

“Y-you sleep well too, Miss Misha.”

The sporadic conversation ended, and silence settled in.

[01 : 04]

Before I knew it, an hour had passed since day twenty began.

I reviewed my plans while keeping an eye on our surroundings.

‘A few more hours should get us that item, so all that’s left is finding the boss room.’

With our current strength, the boss fight didn’t seem likely to give us much trouble, so I wasn’t too worried.

The only concern was that bad luck could keep us from reaching the boss room in time.

‘If we only had another week, we could get everything worth taking before we left...’

Just as I was smacking my lips in regret, I heard rustling. Turning toward it, I saw Dwalki sitting up in his sleeping bag.

“Um, Bjorn...”

“Sleep, even if you’re not sleepy. Tomorrow—”

“It’s not that I can’t sleep.”

Huh?

Before I could say anything, Dwalki stood all the way up and approached me. Then he lowered his voice so he wouldn’t wake the others.

“I have something to tell you.”

Yesterday, Rotmiller had approached me like this. Apparently, it was his turn now.

“... Go ahead.”

“Do you remember what you told me about Miss Misha’s preferences?”

“I remember.”

I never forgot a lie once I’d told it. That was how I kept holes from appearing later.

Not that it would do me much good in the current situation.

“So what do you want to say?”

As I stared at him, Dwalki spoke with a look of resolve.

“I was going to ask whether what you said was true. But thinking about it now, I suppose it doesn’t matter whether it was true or not.”

His voice was different from usual. There wasn’t the slightest tremor in it, and his gaze as he looked up at me was steady.

“Her preferences don’t matter. It would be cowardly to hope for her true feelings without showing her my true self.”

“... What do you mean?”

“You already know, don’t you? That I’ve secretly been in love with her.”

I wished he’d at least waited until we got back to the city to say—

“If we make it back to the city alive this time—”

“Stop.”

I cut him off urgently. Thinking it and actually saying it out loud were two very different things, after all.

But he seemed to misunderstand my genuine concern.

“So you too, Bjorn...”

Dwalki pressed his lips together, then shook his head vigorously as though casting aside distracting thoughts. He continued in a firmer voice than ever.

“Even so, that changes nothing.”

“Stop talking. I know what you’ve misunderstood—”

“When we return to the city, I’m going to confess my feelings.”

No, that was a death flag.

‘Goddamn it.’

Suddenly, I was starting to feel as uneasy as if I’d run into a Hans.

* * *

“That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll be off, then.”

Dwalki turned away as though fleeing and buried himself in his sleeping bag. Before long, his breathing grew soft and even.

I’d worried this might keep him awake through his precious rest time, but apparently today’s journey really had worn him out.

‘... He’s not planning to propose, at least. Maybe it’ll be fine?’

I forced my own worries aside and focused on keeping watch.

Two hours passed. I woke the dwarf to take over, then lay down.

When I opened my eyes again...

[05 : 07]

It was time to leave.

We’d decided to rest for only four hours tonight, with just the dwarf and me alternating watch.

“You two must be tired. Thanks for the hard work, nyah.”

“Haha! What choice do we have? We don’t have much time left.”

“Tomorrow, it’ll be my turn with Rotmiller, so hang in there today and get some proper rest later, nyah.”

We quickly packed up camp and resumed our journey.

Today’s objective was clear.

“It seems we’ve reached the outer edge of the maze, just as Bjorn said. From here, we’ll follow this wall in one direction.”

A corner of the square-shaped Larukaz’ Maze.

We would defeat the miniboss there and obtain the hidden reward.

Incidentally, even I didn’t know which of the four minibosses would appear. That much had been randomized in the game, too.

‘Honestly, with our current strength, we should beat any of them easily. Apart from that one, they all have clear weaknesses.’

[“BAAAH!!!”]

We picked up the pace, killing countless more Vykundurths today after what must already have been hundreds.

There was still no sign of an Essence dropping...

But the magic crystals were piling up in staggering numbers.

“Hahaha! We’ll make a tidy sum from the magic crystals alone!”

This was actually the maze’s second reward.

Not even the fifth floor had a place where rank-six monsters appeared as a single type for easy hunting. On the fourth floor, we’d have struggled to encounter even twenty a day.

“... A dead end?”

After traveling for about twelve hours, we reached our destination.

A point at the corner of the maze.

“I never thought there’d be nothing here, nyah.”

“It might be in the other direction. Or somewhere else entirely.”

“Haha! Surely there’s a way out, right?”

“There must be. This is still the Labyrinth.”

While the others each offered a comment at the dead end, Rotmiller studied the wall and murmured,

“... Wait a moment. Something seems suspicious.”

Honestly, I was a little surprised.

Was it the Sixth Sense attached to his Mimic Essence?

Or just the old guy’s powers of observation?

CLICK. RRRRUMBLE.

When he touched something, the wall slid aside, revealing a hidden space.

“Whoa, a door opened, nyah.”

“Everyone, stand back! It could be dangerous!”

The dwarf sprang forward and raised his shield. Taking my cue, I quickly joined him.

Of course, no monster suddenly leaped out.

“... Nothing’s coming out?”

Naturally. It wasn’t that sort of place.

Darkness shrouded the space beyond the wall, making it impossible to see inside.

Not that it made any difference to me.

“I’ll lead.”

“Bjorn! It could be dangerous, nyah!”

“It’s fine. That’s my role.”

With the dwarf hesitating, I delivered a suitably tank-like line and stepped inside. Torches mounted on the walls lit up all at once, illuminating the room.

I quickly checked our surroundings.

“This place...”

A stone chamber of roughly a hundred square meters. A magic circle of geometric patterns drawn on the floor.

And a pole topped with a severed goat’s head decorating it.

“This place feels... creepy, nyah.”

“I don’t see a portal. Can’t we just leave?”

I hid a smile as Misha and Dwalki muttered uneasily.

Of course, they wouldn’t know.

Compared to the other rooms, this one was tame.

‘Anyway, since we got this room, finding the boss room should be a piece of cake. As for how to use it, I can probably drop a subtle hint to Rotmiller like before...’

That was one less thing to worry about.

Defeating the boss would be a little harder, but until now, bad luck could have ended our expedition without us even seeing its face.

‘Still, how do I summon this thing? It’ll look awfully suspicious if I just do it.’

It happened while I was pondering that pleasant dilemma.

“Huh?”

“... Wait, you too?”

Everyone, myself included, flinched at the same time.

So I wasn’t the only one who’d felt the change.

“What is this? My mana has suddenly increased enormously.”

“M-mine too, nyah. What’s happening to my body?”

The weight of my heavy armor, which had become a slight burden after my Strength stat dropped, vanished. It felt as though I were wearing Styrofoam cosplay armor.

Why on earth had this happened?

The instant I realized the truth, a curse sprang to mind.

‘Oh, fuck...’

Vitality surged throughout my body. This was a change beyond anything I could have felt even using [Gigantification].

I already knew the reason.

“Rotmiller.”

“... It seems you’ve had the same thought as me.”

Larukaz’ Maze, the fourth floor’s hidden field.

Other explorers had entered this place.

‘At least one person. Five at most.’

Common sense said a five-person team was most likely, but it was too early to be certain.

Every possibility was still open.